Nurture Your Roots; Not Your Fruits: Thrive Through Seasons of Growth and Contraction

Welcome to LegalBiz Cafe! Digitally remastered with AI, in this podcast series, Attorney Shaune B. Arnold gives to frustrated professionals like YOU the tools and resources you need to make the LEAP to entrepreneurship so you can start, build or fix a business you will absolutely LOVE. 

Success isn't just about chasing fruit—it’s about tending to your roots. In this episode, Attorney Shaune B. Arnold explores how entrepreneurs can thrive during life's inevitable lean seasons. Discover how nurturing your core, including your values, self-care, and mindset—prepares you for your next season of abundance. It's soulful, strategic, and necessary. 

Transcript

Hello, friends! And welcome to this week's episode of legal biz cafe. I am your host, attorney Shaune B Arnold and tonight we are going to talk about nurturing your roots, not your fruits.

But before we go bearing fruit, I want to chat with you for just a moment about what we're doing here on legal biz cafe. You see, I've been a business consultant for about 40 years and a business attorney for about 30 of those 40 years. I work with entrepreneurs on a daily basis, and I find that they often have emotional issues that stop them, that stymie them, that stump them, and that keep them from building the business of their dreams.

So, that's what we are doing here on LegalBiz Cafe. I also invite you to listen to my other show, Your Business, Accelerated! On that show, you get the benefit of my many years of business consulting and as transaction counsel. On that show, I riff on the serious business issues that can tank your business. When you listen to LegalBiz Café and Your Business, Accelerated, you are being set on solid footing so that you can bear fruit well into the seasons to come.

Let’s get started this evening, nurturing those roots rather than the fruit.

You know, we are all attracted to the fruit that life bears. We eat juicy apples and peaches in the summertime. I mean, that's what makes summer great, right? I trade dealing with the unrelenting killer heat for the sweet, delicious taste of nectarines and watermelon in the summertime. It's awesome. I love it.

As entrepreneurs we work very hard so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor. The fruit comes in the form of money usually. It can also come in the form of time with our family or by ourselves if that's what we need. It could come as travel to exotic places or having adventures that help us get our mojo back.

So, all of this is really wonderful. Fruit in due season is amazing, is it not? But we have to be aware that fruit in season is exactly that …fruit in season. It's not always going to be in season. Have you ever tasted a strawberry in the middle of winter? It's red, it looks ripe, but when you pop it in your mouth, it tastes like plastic. That fruit is out of season. Yes, I know they grow them in hot houses, but it doesn't taste the same when it's out of season.

You know, I heard recently that we are either in growth mode or in protection mode. And at first I thought this was kind of simplistic. However, upon deeper reflection, I think I have to reconsider my position on that. When we are in growth mode, we are enjoying the fruits of life. These are the times when people graduate from college, they buy a home, they get promotions at work, and they start a family or build that business of their dreams, one that provides sufficient revenue to pay the business' expenses, the entrepreneur's expenses, and allows them to hire someone so they can get off that hamster wheel and maybe take that dream vacation. Maybe they can expand their business abroad so they can enjoy the global impact they've been looking for.

When you are in growth mode, things are expanding for you. Opportunities just present themselves to those that are prepared. This is when you are in your flow. You can't stop that blessing no matter what. You can't get in your own way when you're in your flow.

But it is important to understand that that growth mode is a season. It is to be enjoyed. It is to be maximized, because eventually this season of abundance will ebb and will draw to a close, and that season of protection will begin in your life.

This is part of the ebb and flow of nature. If every day was an ecstatic day, when would you know you're having a good day? Just a question.

It's nothing to be afraid of when you feel that ebb in your life, but you do want to plan for those bare spots. You do want to be ready for those rough spots. Those of us that do not plan for the season of contraction, or who just flat out don't see it coming, are in for a very rude awakening.

Seriously, I liken this to several clients and friends of mine that I've seen over the years that were actors. Those that felt the hands of time sort of creeping in transitioned to directing, to producing and even to coaching. But there were others, unfortunately that thought that they would be young and beauteous forever. For those folks 40, 50, and 60 hit them like a battering ram.

Now we all know that Hollywood is a rare industry where ageism is alive and well and pretty much intractable. It makes the last stop on that line really, really visible. But there are other industries that are not quite so obvious with that stuff, and it really can take you by surprise, and you can find yourself standing on the outside looking in before you even know what's happening.

So, I want to give you a couple of tips for getting through these lean times. If they do take you by surprise, or even if you see them coming. I want to talk to you about caring for your roots.

You know, the farmer knows that upon planting an apple tree, it will take up to 8 years or more before it begins to bear fruit. Then, after the tree has given all of its fruit for the season, the farmer knows the bare tree is not dead. She understands that if she fertilizes the roots and gives the tree plenty of water, it will bear fruit again in the next season.

Now, in our lives, this can seem pretty silly. We feel like we are watering dirt and that we're creating mud pies. We don't see the fruit when it's not on the tree. But come next season, you're going to notice some blossoms, and then, yes, that fruit will come to bear.

The farmer, importantly, is not fertilizing and watering and going by what the tree looks like. It looks like a dead tree. See, the farmer is going by what she knows, not by what she sees.

So, what do you know about you and about your gifts that you're bringing to the world? How are you nurturing yourself in these lean times. And you know that is really, really tough, because our natural inclination when we get to those times of ebb is to contract. But the problem is, when we get to the other side of that season, then we're smaller, and we don't necessarily want to be smaller.

We want to continue to exercise. We want to continue to nurture ourselves and to get those massages when we want or need them. It's important to take care of self. Taking that occasional spa day is critically important to you. It's important to your family. It's important to the people who work for you, trust me, because you're grumpy when things are not going your way.

It's important that you pay attention to your wellness. It’s important that you nurture yourself through those lean times.

So, what are you doing to ensure that your cup refills as life can sometimes drain its contents. If you have lost something or someone that meant a great deal to you, spend some time actually releasing it. I mean, of course, allow yourself the time to grieve the loss, but do not live there.

Do not take up residence in that space of loss. You know there's often a time in each of our lives where someone may be able to look at us and all they see is our strength, and they don't know why, or all they see is our pain, and they don't know why.

Have you reached that dark night of the soul? No?? Well, keep living. Your turn is coming.

And if you HAVE reached that dark night of the soul, spend time releasing the pain, because whatever it was that happened, please understand that happened in the past. It flat out doesn't exist anymore.

There is absolutely no point in dwelling on what you didn't get and who didn't want you, or what you lost. Life is so rich! This universe is so abundant that if it makes it just makes no sense clinging to things that aren't meant for you.

What you need to do is open your hands. Open your hands and allow source energy to put something new in them. You can’t get a new blessing if you’re hands are clenched around a broken dream. Let it go.

This time of contraction is perfect. It is a very natural stopping point where you can perhaps re-evaluate where you are, where you're going, and what you're going to do when you get there. If you feel the deep calling, then be flexible enough to make that shift to whatever it is. Be open.

You don't know where your blessings are coming from, and you don't know what they're going to be so you have to be open. You have to be willing. You have to be able to take on that challenge, to take on that opportunity when it presents itself to you. If you feel that deep calling, then that is a sign for you that you are indeed on purpose.

When you are on point and on purpose that shift will occur in you, and that shift will catapult you right back into a growth mode and the season of abundance will begin again.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for joining me on this week's episode of legal biz cafe. I am your host. Attorney Shaune B Arnold, I invite you to follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter X. In each of those places my moniker is Shaune dot Arnold.

I look forward to seeing you next week on LegalBiz Café. In the meantime, I am your host. Attorney Shaune B Arnold reminding you, as always, to MAXIMIZE your COMPETENCE, to get the CONFIDENCE YOU NEED to succeed.

I'll see you next week. Bye-bye, folks.