By Udeme Archibong

Everything in mother earth is green and growing given that it is given adequate nourishment and care. But when nourishment and care ceases growth also ceases and decay sets in.

I read about two different trees from two diverse cultures. The trees are the Bonsai tree which is found in Japan and the General Sherman found in California.  The General Sherman are giant trees extending into the heavens 272 feet and measuring 79 feet in circumference it is said that if the giant tree were cut down, it would produce enough lumber to build 35 five –room houses.

The bonsai tree is a contrast of General Sherman tree. The Bonsai tree though beautiful and perfectly formed, its height is measured in inches. That’s a stunted growth. What intrigues me about these two trees was when I discovered that at a particular time both trees were of the same size. When they were seeds, each weighed less than 1/300 of an ounce. But the size difference in maturity is very remarkable.

The differences in the growth size of both trees lies in a simple truth. When the bonsai tree stuck its head above the earth, the Japanese pulled it from the soil and tied off its tap-root and come of the feeder roots, hence it resulted in stunted growth, though beautiful in appearance. But the General Sherman has a different story. The seed of the General Sherman fell into the rich soil of California and was nourished by the minerals, adequate moisture and sunshine; this made it a giant tree.

Our Creator implanted seeds within everyone. This seed is our potentialities inherent within us. Like the Bonsai tree, some of us ignorantly or through neglect suppress this life changing resource (potentials) within us by allowing thorns and weeds to choke and render our potentialities incapacitated. This makes our destinies become dwarfed. Like the General Sherman, those who have discovered and awakened the giant within have one thing in common.

They’ve maximized their potentials by nourishing it with adequate knowledge and the application of knowledge to their lives. Rather than giving excuses or justifying themselves, they learn from their mistakes and past failures: constantly growing through them. They are ever seeking and searching for knowledge, developing their minds and imagination in the process. They are consistently learning, growing and improving their destinies. These categories of people have a giant size life. They make their life count.

The quality of your life experience depends on the level of growth you attain spiritually, emotionally, socially, mentally, and financially. Rather unfortunately, most people do not experience growth in every aspect of their lives.

Many people spend their adult years defending what they know. They have closed their minds to learning, growing and improving themselves. They perceive learning and growing to be the exclusive of children and teenagers. Hence, they live a miserable life, void of fulfillment.

Many people want “instant” money, power, fame etc They desperately prefer to jump into success rather than grow into success. It is rather unfortunate to observe human wrecks all about us because of a “short cut” mentality.

Life itself is a journey; those who do not move along with it suffer from a stampede. This could be evident by the crowds of people on the ground struggling to survive and barely get by. Those who move along with life make progress. And growth is what it takes to put your life in motion. This could be evident as these people maximize their potentials and make it to the top.

Success also is journey in which a person’s life must experience progressive motion daily. As the saying goes, life is a journey we must complete it. But the big question is: how are we going to complete it? Will we complete life in a grand style? Or will we complete life in a miserable, self defeating way? The answer is up to us.

The success journey requires a lifestyle of growth.