#470 A Tree. Real damage

What if the branch that hurts you doesn’t fall fast—it lowers itself gently and still dents the roof? We open with a sharp palm frond that almost caused real harm and a Colorado ice storm that snapped loaded limbs across the neighborhood. Those scenes become a practical lens for life and leadership: the dangers we dodge in an instant and the slow, polite failures we tolerate until they cost us.

I share why neglected habits, old policies, and inherited beliefs often collect “weight” like ice on late-season leaves. We talk through the difference between a dramatic break and a gradual sag, and why both demand proactive care. Then we turn to tools: a simple pruning audit for your routines and systems, three questions to reveal what no longer serves you, and timing strategies that mirror how arborists preserve the health of a tree. The goal isn’t minimalism for its own sake; it’s channeling resources to what still bears fruit.

You’ll hear concrete examples you can use today: scaling back ritual meetings that block light from new work, sunsetting features that drain more than they deliver, and renegotiating personal rules that quietly exhaust you. We frame maintenance as an act of stewardship—protecting capacity before the next storm arrives—so your team and your personal life can bend without breaking. If you’ve sensed small snaps at the edge of your week, this conversation offers language and steps to trim with confidence and grow with intention.

Tap play, then tell me: which branch are you ready to cut back? Subscribe, share this episode with someone carrying too much weight, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find the show.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Today’s Object
• 0:16 Sharp Branch Near Miss
• 0:40 Ice Storm And Gradual Damage
• 1:30 Trim Old Ways To Stay Healthy
• 2:03 Closing And Listener Invite

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to message 470 of the Growth Instigators Hotline where we examine an everyday normal object and assign it a deeper meaning. I'm Aaron Havens, your host and growth coach. What can a tree remind us of today? Trees sure can cause damage if they're not properly maintained. My my buddy left a message on the hotline a couple days ago talking about a time a dead palm tree branch fell and almost landed on her head. Have you seen those things? They are crazy sharp and heavy. That could have been a really bad scenario. It reminds me of the time a heavy ice storm hit Colorado a little too early in the season. The leaves hadn't dropped yet, and so the weight of the ice on the leaves and the limb were too heavy for a lot of the trees. You could hear limbs cracking and breaking all through our neighborhood. It was kind of eerie. Someone instantly crashed down and caused damage. Boom! The limb on our house though just slowly gave way to the weight. It was kind of fun listening to tiny snaps and s and watching it just slowly start to give into gravity as it ever slow slightly placed itself onto the top of my roof. And even though it was really calm and polite about it, the weight still ultimately caused damage on my house. What limbs in your life are just old enough that they might need trimmed? Yep, it eventually happens to all trees. Let's take a lesson from nature and recognize that maintenance could minimize damage and might keep us healthier for much, much longer. What and how you are thinking or living or leading might need to be trimmed back from old worn-out ways for your health and for the health of everyone around you. Thank you for tuning in today. You can listen to any of our past podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. Join us next week as we examine leadership lessons from a computer. If you have thoughts you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them. Contact me at growthinsgators.com or leave me a message after the beep. And as always, keep instigating growth in all you do.