Seeing Beyond “Seeing” is Essential for Growth

Sunday, January 6, 2008 at 04:25pm by David Askaripour in Philosophy

Seedlings

In nature nothing happens “fast.” It just happens on it’s own accord — at its own pace once it has been put in motion. Look at a seedling for a few days and you’ll probably see aggressive growth up until the point it becomes a “mature” plant. But maturity is an illusion. Look at a so called full grown “mature” plant for a couple of weeks and you will probably see little to no growth. But what you can’t see with your naked eyes, that continued internal growth, is still happening.

Growth is still occurring. And, in time, you will be able to recognize this growth if you are patient and let go of your expectations to “see” growth. The same growth process of the tree occurs throughout everything that we do in life — Everything.

The Invisibles of Growth

Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, would call this a “tipping point.” The critical point at which everything falls into place and you can now see the aggressive growth of whatever it is you were creating. But Gladwell forgets to discuss the “invisibles” of growth. The invisibles are the things that are utterly un-trackable and beyond recognition of our senses — but can only be felt intuitively (or via the sixth sense).

Do you think the tree knows that it has grown 5 inches? Absolutely not. It, just is, 5 inches taller. That is now the tree. And, without any effort or consideration, it grows that 5 inches. Of course, within the ideal environment and conditions for such growth. Am I comparing human behavior to the likes of a mere tree? You bet I am. Why not? We’re just as much a part of nature as a tree is. We water ourselves (drink), fertilize ourselves (vitamins and minerals) and absorbs the sun rays — just as the tree does to grow. Yet the tree doesn’t think about it — we seem to. And in everything we do, we expect to see — no, we demand! — to see aggressive burst of growth!

We “Demand” Growth, Never “Allow” Growth

We demand to see profits. We demand to see people reading our articles. We demand for people to fall in love with us. We demand the waitress to serve our food this instance. We demand for people to agree with us, “or else.” We force every situation to feed our desires. We want to “see” everything happening with our two eyes — instead of feeling it happening. Because “feeling” isn’t enough. It’s weird. It’s not tangible. You can’t reach your hand out and grab what you can’t see. And what you can’t see may scare you. You may tell yourself that it’s really not happening if “I can’t see it happening.”

Maturity as an Illusion

When you come back to the “mature” tree in a few years, you will now “see” how much it has grown. Why? Because it never stopped growing and evolving. But when your were trying to force its growth and constantly waiting and watching it, you saw nor felt nothing.

Just as the newborn baby begins its journey to death from the day that he’s born, upon examination of the baby 10 years later, he will not be dead — only older. Visit the baby 100 years later, and he will surely be dead.

And in that same way, our ideas, projects, interactions, and situations always continue to grow and mature, but never reaching “maturity.” When you plant a seed — start a company, kiss a girl, spread your love, or share a smile — don’t monitor its growth and constantly expect to see radical development. Instead, continue to love that seed and nourish it with water of passion, soil of determination, and rays of positivity. These are the ingredients for growth — not forcing, not expecting, not monitoring every minute detail to the point of exasperation.

It’s happening. Forever and always. And seeing beyond the illusion of having to see it happing is essential.

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3 Comments

Eric Patrick Marr

January 7th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

Great writing, D.A. Perfectly stated, as always.

I’ve often noticed how each spring, I look at the empty trees and think, “Man, when are the buds gonna start showing?” Then, forgetting about the trees for a couple of weeks, I look at them again and seemingly all of a sudden, the leaves are fully out and everything’s green.

We seem to want to “micromanage” growth as opposed to trusting it’s going to happen. It’s like folks with the stock market — if you do like I did 10 years ago, you’re staring at the real time fluctuations every two minutes, and you DRIVE YOURSELF INSANE!!!

You have to know yourself and follow your inner “feel,” your inner voice, as you said.

Trust your insides to know if invisible growth is happening, it’s really THE ONLY way to know, hence the term “invisible.”

Rock on,
EPM

Interestingly, I also agree that observing nature is the purest way to discover our Lives… Whether we watch plants or watch the cosmos, the physical world is a reflection for us to find Ourselves in!

lawrence

January 7th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

many small businesses across america do infact, have/see this “internal growth” you speak of…but sooner or later, this internal growth has to show ‘outside’, real, return - in the real world - right now now

that’s the reason why many businesses close weekly.
lol, this ‘internal growth’ is taking too long to bare fruit

David Askaripour

January 8th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

Hey EP,

Thanks for commenting. Exactly, when we stop micromanaging growth and stop all the excessive monitoring of it, we “become” ONE with the growth — totally losing the total concept of separateness of it.

Thanks for commenting, Lawrence. Indeed, many small business are simply not patient enough because they are so transfixed on the “bottom line! the bottom line!” that they trash the project, or they are doing things for all the wrong reasons and when they realize that… they say: “Forget this project!”