048 - Keep Growing Forward

"Mother Nature has been trying to teach me something very important - KEEP GROWING." - Johnnie Williams III

This episode tackles the concept of personal growth and offers an interesting analogy with regard to others not desiring to grow with you. Be sure to call the Thought Line to share your opinion of what you've gotten from this podcast and any of the others 47 episodes that each pack unique messages to be discovered.

If you are looking for an engaging way to mirror your own personal growth and development, I suggest you going out and purchasing a pot, some potting soil and a plant (seed) that matches your personality or the life cycle of your improvement efforts. Plant the seed the day you intend to begin your journey and do exactly what it takes to insure its growth for yourself. Water, fertilize and nurture your ambition just as you do the plant and just keep pace with it until the steps become habit and it feels un-natural not to do them.

Remember that "Time is Truth and Truth is Time" and all shall be revealed in just a matter of time.

Ask Yourself:

1) What does a plant need to grow?
2) Where do you need the most time growing yourself?
3) What does that growth look like?

Visit JohnnieWilliams.com for more information or call (315) THOUGHT to ask a question or leave a message.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:41

Welcome to another Thoughts Learning Experience. I'm happy to present season three, Episode 48. Keep growing forward. Which could be mistaken for keep going forward. But I can tell you, going and growing is quite different. For example, I'm gonna keep going along with whatever it is. No alarm bells going off, but keep going forward. But when I or you say something like I'm growing with the process, it implies a different type of progress and personal progression. This week's thought aligns so well with the theme, I want to go ahead and make the connection much earlier. Mother Nature has been trying to teach me something very important. Keep growing. Not going, but keep growing. You see, man and woman, they motivate us often to be inspired to keep going. Get up when you fall and keep going. Don't look at the obstacles, keep going. When people get in the way, keep going. When they stop you, keep going. When you're afraid, keep going. Those are great concepts. But Mother Nature promotes growth in so so many different ways. Mother Nature has always got something growing. So are you growing or are you just going along with it? You see, I love this theme, keep growing, because it reminds me of one of the ways in which I engage audiences when I stood on stages with this concept of you gotta keep growing in life. I could have easily said, like so many, keep going, but I had a unique way that I wanted to plant that seed in someone's life and someone's consciousness and someone's thought process. So the way in which I did it was I asked for a volunteer, of course. But I'm like, I need you to do something for me. I need you to determine which of these two plants is real and which one is fake. Who can do it? Who wants to do it? Hands go up, people are shouting, pick me, I know, pick me, I know. I pick an individual and they come down and they go to the right of the stage and they look. Then they can't touch it, they just gotta look. And then they go to the left side of the stage and they look, and they can't touch it, that's the deal. By eyeballing the situation and looking at these two plants, and they look the exact same. What's different, what is fake, and one is real. Oh, I had some very smart people up on stage, I had some funny people up on stage, and then some people were like, I know, I I know. How do you know? I just know. Okay, how do you know? And if you get it wrong, I keep the money in my pocket. Uh I don't know if I'm that right. Yeah. See, I was gonna give you money to come down and stand on stage and help me make a point, help me push out this message. But are you that confident that you choose right or left? And only if you're right do you take this money back. Most people didn't want to take that deal because the plants look that similar. So how did I know which one was which? I had two ways. One of those ways was I kept the price tag on the bottom of both the plant that was real and the one that was fake. And the fake one actually cost a little more than the real one. Maybe because it was no maintenance or low maintenance. Easy for me to pick it up and see, okay, this is the fake one, this is the real one. How would I know which was real and which was fake? Time and growth. You see, time is truth, and truth is time, and all shall reveal itself in its due time. But hear what I just said. The truth of the matter is when it's time to pour into these two plants, one is going to waste the water on which I pour into it. One is going to accept the water and grow with it. Time is truth and truth is time. Keep growing forward. What does a fake plant and a real plant have to do with changing lives? You can waste a lot of time in your life trying to grow with people because they're trying to figure out where are we going when at the end of the day, it's how are we growing? You can't go but so far. It's just a concept. Now, can you grow in your awareness? Can you grow your knowledge? There was a point in my life that I surrounded myself and my home with a bunch of very realistic looking plants, and they were in my life to remind me in a stage of my life that I had to grow through some things, grow from some things, outgrow some things, bad habits, limiting thoughts. I had to grow past some things, as we all do. Because just going and going and going, being busy just to be busy, it was time to grow. How many people want to go somewhere? They want to go to the next level. Their business partner doesn't see the same vision. Family and friends don't see it. So now the challenge is: are you just gonna keep going along to get along? And going to the same places that aren't taking you anywhere, or are you gonna start growing? They say sometimes we outgrow people. I'm not sure about how the people take that. Theoretically, I get it. But Mother Nature is showing you gotta keep growing. That that is alive, it just continues growing. So I had to get it through my head that there's some people willing to go some places with me, but there were a lot of people who weren't willing to grow with me, invest in my growth, and I couldn't waste time being angry about that. And I'm saying to you, don't waste time being angry about that. Pour into yourself, plant new seeds in your consciousness and your awareness and your wisdom and your intelligence and watch it grow. Let new ideas take root in your life and see where it takes you. See what kind of fruit you begin to produce and what you can do with that. That's just something to think about this week. I really like this theme. Keep growing forward. But I got some questions as usual. And I want you to take a moment to play with these thoughts after the podcast is over. You can always let me know what you're thinking and what you got to say. Call me on the thought line, 315 Thought 315-846-8448. But my first question is this What does a plant need to grow? Now I don't know why I decided to ask that question in the book, but I did. It would seem kind of obvious. But when you think about that, most people's first answer is a plant needs water to grow. Yes, it does, but that's not it. A plant also needs time to grow, it needs soil to grow, it needs sunlight to grow, it needs consistency to grow, it needs space, as in space for the roots to fan out to grow. It needs a seed to be planted that it grows from. You ever seen those little sticks that people use to support the stem of a plant or a tree? Number two, where did you need the most time spent growing yourself? Well, for me, off the top of my head, I'd say patience has always been something that I've had to really work with and plant into my life, into my idea of life. Not necessarily the type of answer people might assume, I might say, but I always have to grow my patience. Because as fast as I grow my patience, it's required. So patience is something that I need to spend more time growing. I can never have enough patience. But then at the same time, persistence is something that I need to spend more time on. Because I haven't always been persistent on certain opportunities or getting all from opportunity that is justly due to me. I let a lot of stuff slide. It was never that important. I'll make it somewhere else, I'll go do something else. I just gave it, don't worry about giving it back. I really wasn't persistent in the long term. And over a long period of time, that lack of persistence can bite you in the butt. And life has shown me and taught me that sometimes I could have been persistent in situations that would have worked better for me. But I'm no longer in those present moments, so the only thing I can do is be persistent in the new moments, in the right now. So as I grow, that is something that I continue to put some time aside to work on. And lastly, what does growth look like on you? What does growth look like to you? For me, I look at these podcasts as they're now racking up, and I remember the first eight podcasts seemed like so long ago. So much work. But now here we are on episode 48. I know the process, I know the time it takes, I know the editing, the upkeep, shaping the messages to come, making sure they're connected but different enough to offer you food for thought. I know that growing the audience of this podcast will require some people to help me grow. Not just go along and listen, but to help me grow and fertilize and pollinate this message. So when you hear this, if you're listening to this point, thank you. But know that just like the plants of Mother Nature pollinate, we call it allergy season, but there's a lot going on in our world that sometimes we see as an inconvenience. But we love the conveniences that come from what we take from nature. Let's pollinate this message. Let's pollinate some of the messages in the podcast that I've already done. If there's something you would like to see more of, something you would like to hear more of, suggestion you would like to make, help me grow. You know the number to call. But if you're here for the first time, know that I invite you to download the Think About It app. Yes, we have an app that is comprised of 369 thought-staring quotes, all originals, all pulled from my second book, Something to Think About, awaiting you on a daily basis, one quote at a time, just as we get one moment, one second, one day at a time. Some people like it and some people don't like that aspect. And when we get a hold of something that we like, we just want to dive in. But this pace of one thought a day works for some people and kind of drives other people kind of crazy. But it's a good kind of crazy because they're looking forward to I want some more thoughts, I want to keep thinking. Well, the way to jump ahead and have all the thoughts that are in store for you, the quote or thought for this particular episode is always hyperlinked to the book Think About It, because that's where this quote is coming from. But my name, Johnny Williams, is also hyperlinked and it'll take you right to johnnywilliams.com. And the three books that I've released thus far, they're all available. They all are on Audible. So I try to make sure that no matter what I have for the people, it's never gonna disrupt someone's budget to the point where what they pay and what they get don't match up. I always want you to get more than you pay for. And that's one reason why I committed to do this podcast. But to get the message, you gotta pay with attention. Catch what I just said. It wasn't an accident. Everything that I say and do on this podcast is very intentional. Not knowing that you were gonna listen, but very happy and thankful that you did. But I took some time to think about exactly what I was gonna say related to that theme. Keep growing forward. Mother Nature has been trying to teach us something very important, and that's to keep growing. So this week, that's what I encourage you to do. I hope whatever you're trying to see in this life and get out of this life, that you're growing towards it, and it's getting closer and closer if you don't already have it in your hands. I'll talk to you soon. Until