Growth. 

It comes in many forms, in both personal and professional ways, and is almost always positive. 

We love to look back and observe how we grow over time. We root for our friends and family as they grow. Parents beam with pride in watching their children grow up. 

Growth is undeniably good for all of us, and it’s inextricably linked to a sense of pride, of putting the work in and seeing the results over time. 

As we enter summer, we enter a time of growth and expansion. For many people, gardening is a popular summer hobby.

Heck, even those without a large garden might find a single flower pot laying around somewhere. But before you roll your eyes and think, “geez, another garden analogy? What does this have to do with me?” I ask that you bear with me.

Growth is good, we’ve already established that. But I want to take a moment to talk about the things that stifle growth. 

A lot of us tend to think of neglect as a catalyst for stifling growth. 

For a plant, that might be lack of water or sunshine. And while that’s all true, I’m approaching it with a different perspective.

In my garden, I have a section that is home to a few cucumber plants. And last season, they were growing wonderfully. All three plants were blossoming and blooming, producing delicious cukes. 

Until slowly, over time, one of the vining plants began doing much better than the rest. 

It’s sprawling vine tendrils reached in every direction, and absorbed all the nutrients it could. 

This was fine, of course, until it choked out another competing plant. Meaning, it took all the nutrients so other plants couldn’t grow. 

It stifled them. 

Now, I’ll admit, this may be partially human error. That’s why different species have spacing recommendations--to avoid this--but nonetheless, I slowly watched my other cukes dry out and shrivel up. 

Oftentimes, lack of growth can come from being stifled. Do you have enough space?

Are there enough resources available to you?

What might be stifling your growth, either personally or professionally?

See, many times, the things that stifle us are, on their face, good things! A busy schedule is manageable, but may end up taking away from your ability to be present in the moment. 

Even more-so, we can’t recognize the things that stifle us--they might look too familiar. 

My cucumbers didn’t die because of an invasive species. In fact, it was one of their own. 

As we work together with our co-workers and business partners, we have to ask ourselves--is this environment hurting my growth, or helping it?

If it’s helping—great! If it’s harmful, maybe it’s time for a change of environment, or just a simple adjustment, like more space. 

The other, more poignant question we have to ask ourselves is, am I stifling someone else’s ability to grow?

The former question inspires us to make change, the latter convicts us. 

I’m not sure what changes you need to make, or what your current circumstances are, but I’d encourage everyone to ask themselves these questions continually.

When we make changes for the better, have enough space and resources to succeed--well, that’s when we’ll all grow.