Your Life Is a Harvest - Here's What You've Been Planting - EP 26

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Have you ever looked at your life and thought, why am I still struggling financially? Why do I keep ending up in the same situations? What do I keep saying, I want my life to change? But nothing seems different. And maybe the harder question is, what if the results we're experiencing today aren't random? What if they're the harvest from seeds we've been planting for years? Because most people spend their lives arguing with the harvest instead of examining the seeds.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Today we're talking about a powerful lesson inspired by Jim Rohn. So the article is called The Law of Sowing and Reaping. This article is from Jim Rohn.com and it says that it was written based on the teachings of Jim Rohn. The law that governs everything. Let me tell you something that took me years to figure out. When I was 25 years old, I wanted things to be different. I wanted more money. I wanted more respect. I wanted my family to have a better life. And I spent most of my time wishing for it, hoping for it, complaining that I didn't have it. Then I met a man who changed the way I looked at everything. Mr. Schauf, wealthy man, but easy to talk to. And one day he said something to me I've never forgotten. He said, Jim, if you want things to change, you've got to change. If you want things to get better, you've got to get better. He said, Jim, I understand your situation perfectly. Your situation is the harvest. And if you don't like the harvest, there's only one thing to look at. I said, What's that? He said, the seed. Now here's what I found over the years. Most people want to argue with the harvest. They stand in front of their results, their bank account, their relationships, their health, and they say, This isn't fair. This isn't right. I deserve better than this. And I say, Okay, fine. But let me ask you a question. What did you plant? See, life operates on a very simple law. We call it the law of sowing and reaping. And here's what's interesting about this law. It doesn't care what you think about it, it just works every single time. You plant tomato seeds, you get tomatoes. You don't get cucumbers. You don't get corn. You get exactly what you planted. And if you planted nothing, well, my friend, nothing is exactly what grows. Now most people understand this when it comes to farming. Nobody argues with the farmer. The farmer says, I planted wheat. I expect wheat. Everyone nods. Of course, that makes sense. But somehow when it comes to the rest of life, people want to negotiate. They want to make exceptions. Somebody says, I want a great relationship. I say, What have you sown? They say, What do you mean? I say, What kind of friend have you been? What kind of partner? What kind of listener? What seeds of kindness and attention and patience have you planted? See, here's the problem. Most people want to harvest a relationship they never planted. They want the benefits without the investment. They want the fruit without the root. It doesn't work that way. The spring principle. A brief opportunity. And if the farmer doesn't plant during that window, it doesn't matter how sorry he is later. It doesn't matter how much he wishes he had planted. The season will pass, and a year without planting is a year without harvest. Now what's interesting is that life gives us many springs, not just one. In relationships, there's a spring. A time when the soil is ready, when the other person is open, when a small gesture would grow into something meaningful. Miss that spring and the opportunity passes. In your health, there's a spring, a time when your body responds, when new habits take root easily, when a little discipline goes a long way. Ignore that spring and the ground gets harder. In your skills, your career, your mind, springs everywhere. Reef windows where seeds planted now will multiply for years. But here's what most people do. They say, I'll get to it later. I'll start next month. I'll plant when I feel like it. My friend, spring doesn't care how you feel. Let me give you another piece of this. The law of sowing and reaping is not just about whether you plant, it's about what you plant. A man says to me, Jim, I've been working hard for 20 years and I've got nothing to show for it. I say, Well, what have you been working hard on? He says, What do you mean? I say, Hard work on the wrong thing produces the wrong harvest. You can work hard planting weeds, you'll get a magnificent crop of weeds. Very impressive. But you can't eat weeds. See, activity is not the same as productivity. Motion is not the same as progress. You've got to examine the seeds, not just the effort. If you've been planting seeds of complaint, don't be surprised by a harvest of misery. If you've been planting seeds of gossip, don't be surprised when your reputation suffers. If you've been planting seeds of poor health choices, two tons of donuts and a lifestyle of neglect, don't be surprised when the body breaks down. The harvest doesn't lie. The harvest tells you exactly what was planted. Now here's the good news. The law works both ways. If you start planting good seeds today, in your mind, in your relationships, in your health, in your skills, you will get a harvest. Not overnight. The law requires patience, but the harvest will come. Plant seeds of knowledge by reading good books. Plant seeds of kindness by serving others. Plant seeds of discipline by keeping small promises to yourself. Plant seeds of value by developing skills that matter. Do this long enough and something remarkable happens. The harvest starts to exceed the planting. You plant one seed, you get ten back. You invest one hour in the right skill, it pays you back for years. You do one act of genuine service, it echoes through a network of people you'll never meet. We call that the multiplication principle, and it only activates after you've planted. A challenge for spring. So here's what I want to leave you with, my friend. Don't waste another spring. Look at your life right now, your health, your relationships, your finances, your skills. Look at the harvest you're getting. And instead of complaining about it, ask yourself the honest question, What did I plant to get this? Then ask the better question, What can I plant today to get a different harvest? Because the soil is ready, the season is here, and the law is waiting to work in your favor. The same law that's been working against you while you argued with the harvest. Mr. Schoaf taught me that if I wanted things to change, I had to change. If I wanted things to get better, I had to get better. And that meant becoming a planter instead of a complainer. That's the decision that turned my life around. Spring is here. What are you going to plant?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Wow, Kim.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

I love the article.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Very, very powerful. It touches so many key points in life that we just disregard.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

And one thing that we also love about the article is that it shifts the focus away from the blaming circumstances.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Right. The kind of victim mentality that we've talked about in other episodes and where they want to where people love to like blame outside sources rather than inside. And what they're what they're putting out into the world.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Exactly. Because most of us spend our time looking at outcomes when the real question is, what am I planting?

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

So let's let's break this down.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

This article spoke to both of us because it it resonated for us deeply because we realized that we've been implementing what Mr. Ron and Mr. Schof were speaking about. So we broke down this article into a simple framework. And by the end of the episode, our hope is that you'll have a simple framework to help you stop focusing only on the results you're getting and start identifying the daily habits, choices, actions that are creating those results.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Because once you understand the seeds that you're planting, you can begin intentionally planting new ones that lead to the life you actually want.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Exactly. And that's how we live. We live with intention. So step one, examine the harvest. What results am I currently experiencing? Because before you can change anything, you have to be honest about where you are. So what are your current results, your emotional honesty about how you feel, about yourself, about the life you're living? Are you self-aware of the things that are occurring in your life?

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Yeah. Basically do like a whole life inventory.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

And you have to be willing to take personal responsibility about where your life is instead of taking like the victim mentality role, which I was very guilty of, you know, as we've discussed many times, taking the victim mentality or just like, oh, I, you know, I have depression, and that's just the the hand I've been dealt, and that's just who I am. I just have depression. I have to work around it and I have to take my medication and you know, things like that. Because most people focus on where they want to be, and very few honestly examine where they are.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

And that's a key because you have to take into consideration where you are, where you're starting, to know where you're going.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

And it can be for all areas of your life, your finances, relationships, your health, your confidence, career, happiness, all areas.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Exactly. Because your current life is giving you feedback. Right. Because your harvest or your daily lives tells a story. You're getting the story every single day. And Kim, you just you mentioned that, you know, uh you were living with depression for so long. And we talked about your depression in so many episodes, in previous episodes, and and you wanted your life to change, right? You didn't want to live in a depressed state, but you felt like you didn't have any control over it, right? Right. We and I know we repeated this so many times until we went to Miami, to Mind Valley, and you have this realization, this awakening call. I remember that day, that weekend, you had like this, wait a minute. You examined the harvest. Right? You went back to analyze your habits, your routines, your decisions, your your behavior, your your mindset, and then you saw, okay, I have to do something about it.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Right. And, you know, it's not just about stuff like that. It's it's all areas of your life, like your finances, your health. You know, I had also I struggled with an eating disorder most of my life. I still struggle with it on a daily basis. It's it's it's a daily battle. It's a daily battle. I realized throughout this journey of rebuilding my life that, you know, my health suffered so much because of the eating disorder that I've struggled with my whole life. Those were seeds that I was planting all along, you know, and I just was willing to allow myself to live by that story that I was telling myself, like, oh yes, I have an eating disorder, which is true, I do. And that doesn't negate the fact that I don't, you know, I I do struggle with it, you know. Yeah. It is a real struggle. But me just like giving in to that and being like, eh, I'll just eat what I'm always eating because I have an eating disorder, like, no, I need to push myself, I need to plant new seeds, I need to start taking my health seriously. I needed to start eating better. I needed, you know, then I I ran into some many health complications throughout my life because of it.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

And so those were a result of the seeds that I was planting. Yeah. Until I started planting new seeds, my health was taking a back seat. It wasn't the greatest.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yep. So, yep, you said it, Kim. You harvest tells the story. So, step number two, identify the seeds.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

So, once you identify the seeds, like mine in that example is like I identified, like, okay, I'm having health issues because I had an eating disorder. So, those are the seeds that I planted, right? I was just like, I have an eating disorder and my my teeth, my body was pulling all the nutrients out of my teeth because I wasn't eating properly. So that's just my example of, you know, an eating disorder. But if you want to look at what really created these results, the harvest is telling you a story. The next question becomes, what planted it? And some other examples are if you're having financial problems. Some examples of that would be your overspending.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

That would be the overspending would be the seed that you're planting.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

If you want to be wealthy, if you want to, let's say, if you're overspending, that's the one I help you out in your finances. So you need to identify the seeds.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Your habits, your routines, your decisions, your mindset, your behaviors, your consistency, those are the seeds that you're planting. So you want to make sure that those are all good seeds that you're planting. You want to make good habits, good routines, good decisions, good behaviors, be consistent. Those are all the seeds that you're planting. And the positive seeds that you want to be planting are like reading, exercise, gratitude, learning, intentional relationships.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah, because your results don't appear out of nowhere. Every harvest started as a seed. And sometimes the uncomfortable truth is that today's results are yesterday's decision.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

And I think that's a really hard thing for people to accept and understand is that the decisions that they made yesterday or in the past is what is giving them the results that they're experiencing today. So, like we're saying, like the financial one. Like if you're overspending yesterday or the week before, you're gonna pay for it today and tomorrow and the next week and next month when that credit card bill hits. And they and they don't want to take responsibility for it. And then they want to blame it on the job market is bad and I don't have a good job and I don't get paid enough, or you know, the economy sucks and everything's overpriced. Looking for externals excuses, which those could all be relevant and playing into it. But the fact of the matter is, in that scenario, like, no, you overspent.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

You didn't make enough money to cover what you spend.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Correct. And that would take us to step number three stop waiting for harvest season. Because success begins during planting season.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Right. And the good thing about humans is that we don't have like a specific spring season, right? We just have today. And today we can make the changes.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah. We have a spring every single day, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Yep. Some days are better than others, of course.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

So why start tomorrow? You can't start today.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Waiting until ready, no.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

No.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

You have to how many times?

SPEAKER_02 15:33

You're never gonna you're never gonna feel ready.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Never, never, never. Uh the procrastination is always gonna be there. Yeah. You know, and then you're gonna feel like, oh, I missed opportunities. Well, are you in the game? You have to act today. You know, there is no timing, uh, it's only taking action. It's all about if you how bad do you want it? How bad do you want the change? How about do you want to plant the seeds today? There is not like uh, oh well, I'm too old to go to law school, or um it's I'm too old for to learn a new skill. Those are all excuses.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Excuses and old beliefs.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah. We can always pursue personal growth, pursue better finances, a better social status, or better friends, or a better social life. Because the farmer doesn't wait until harvest season to start planting.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

That's right. Harvest season would be too late.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

A lot of people want future results without the present effort, but life rewards planting and not wishing. So if you're not putting in the work up front, you are not gonna get the results later.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Yeah, you have to plan, plan, plan, and that take us to step number four. Plan better see.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Yes, because small actions compound. The good news is that you don't have to overhaul your entire life tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

That's right. Big transformations usually begins with small decisions.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

So you want to improve your relationship, it starts with one conversation. You want to get a new job, a new career, it starts with the first application.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

The seed never looks like the harvest. And most people quit because the seed doesn't look impressive.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

This is like the episode that we talked about, the messy middle. It's like you have the first step that's like exciting. You're like, yes, I'm gonna get a new job. I'm gonna start a new career. And then you start like applying and you have all this momentum and you're like filling out resumes, and you're getting no traction, no traction, no traction. Maybe you get an interview, but the interview sucked, and you get no traction, no callbacks, and you're stuck in the messy middle, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

And that's like the seed taking growth. Like it's underground, it's not doing anything, you're watering it every day, it's getting sunlight every day, you're giving it time, but it hasn't sprouted yet. That's the messy middle that we talk about. That is like the horrible time lapse from the seed that you plant in the beginning to the crop that grows at the end. That messy middle, that painful middle.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

That's where all the magic is happening that nobody realizes.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yep. Beautifully said, Kim. And that takes us to step five. Trust the process. Trust that process, trust that messy middle.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Trust that seed that you planted is there because you're watering it.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yep, because the growth is invisible before it becomes visible.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

You know, and this is the hardest part.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

So you have to embrace for patience, uh delayed gratification, faith, persistence, and consistency is a key. Again, like if you wanna if you wanna improve that relationship, or if you want to work in your business, if you wanna grow it, of course you have to trust the process, that messy middle that that we talk um that we've been talking about.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

For another example, healing, you know, if you need to heal a heartbreak, a healing doesn't happen overnight, right? You have to do the work and put in the work. And, you know, if you lose someone on Monday, you're not gonna be over it by Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

You have to put in the work. And there's the the messy middle again, right? The patience, the time, patience, energy that goes into doing the healing work. Right. There's stages of grief that you have to go through. They're inevitable. You have to go through them. But at the end of it, you will get through that healing process as long as you put in the work.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

And you show up and be consistent, and that's the key.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Right. So again, a farmer doesn't dig up seeds every week to see if they're working, right? You just have to trust the process.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

You know, that would be counterproductive if he was digging up those seeds.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

You just plant the seeds and they just add a little bit of water and just let it be, right? Because growth is often happening before you can see evidence of it. Right. But most people, and we know this, Kim, most people quit during the invisible stage because even us, we how many times we got frustrated, we work on a project, and we are just like, fuck this.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Yeah. Oof, story of my life. I've started so many hundreds of projects, and I don't see the results, and I get stuck in that stage and I walk away. I quit and change, nope, it didn't work. I couldn't do it. I didn't like it because of this, or it was too hard because of that, or I didn't know how to do it. So I just gave up and I quit. And now I'm on to the next thing.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Yeah. So the resilience that was before.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

That was before, yes. Now, now I've realized the error of my ways, and I have seen that you can't quit. You can't walk away. If something's like moving and you're showing momentum, then you just gotta stick with it.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

There is a time for certain things, of course, that you have to, you know, it's time to throw in the towel of certain things, of course. Yep. And that's a whole different discussion and topic.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

But depends on what it is, like Kevin Oliari says, if it's not uh good, just bring it, bring it behind the bar and shoot it.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

That's a whole different topic though, of when to quit, when to walk away.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Yeah. So most people quit during the invisible stage, don't quit. Trust the process. So why people focus on outcome instead of habits, why do we do that? And we just want like, oh well, I should be making more money. But even Jim Rohn says that. What are you bringing to the market?

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

You know? But we just feel entitled. I'm working hard.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah. Well, that's not cutting it. A lot of people are working hard.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

You have to improve your skills, create new habits, be consistent, bring something to the table.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

The delayed gratification in our modern modern culture is a big one. And that prevents people from being consistent and showing up and creating the habits and the compound interest. People just want it now. They want to feel good now. They want to feel good in the moment. But the truth is creating those habits and things that are going to be good for your future, they take time and that's delayed gratification.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

It takes time. And for some reason, there is a a love of nature. So if you think about it, for a sequoia to grow that big, the stars seed. Yeah. Everything starts with a small seed. So what are you planting right now? Ask yourself, what am I planting right now?

SPEAKER_02 22:07

An example of a personal seed that we planted that eventually paid off when we were moving to Arizona. And that was a hard one. Yeah. Because we had so many moving parts. We had the two restaurants to sell. We had a home to sell. We had two kids, one of which my son's father, he didn't want me moving our son across the United States.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

And but it was a seed that we planted and we were like, we gave ourselves a year. And we were like, okay, in a year, by the end of my son's school year, we were going to make this move. But I had to get all those pieces into place. So every day for a year, we worked on each individual one of those moving parts. And we were like, how can we move the needle today? Well, we're working on selling the restaurants and we had to list the house and we had to, you know, find a buyer. And I had to convince my son's father that this was the best for everybody involved. And there were so many moving parts. But we planted the seed, and one year later, we eventually were able to move across the country.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

That's right. It wasn't easy.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Yeah, it sounds easy now that we've already, we already did it and we moved through it, right? But the everyday, mundane stuff about that situation was really hard, really stressful, really emotional, painful, difficult, challenging, scared. Those are all things I would use. Those are all emotions and things I had to deal with on a daily basis for that year to make it through.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

But like we said, there is always a spring for us, for society, for humans. Make a decision, make a work, and stay consistent.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Yeah, of course. The seed that we planted was that we wanted to move across the country, the harvest that it produced of a year's worth of work and consistency and showing up even when it was really hard, even when it was painful and emotionally draining. We showed up and we did the work for a year planning that move. And we finally made the move. That was the harvest.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

So maybe the most empowering part of this entire conversation is realizing that your future is not created someday. Right. It's being created today through your habits, your choices, your routines, your actions. The life you're hoping for isn't built at harvest time. It's built during planting season. Every day you wake up, you get another opportunity to plant.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

That's right. And some questions for you to ponder to help you rebuild your life, to help you plant some new seeds. What harvest in your life are you currently frustrated with? What seeds may have contributed to creating it? What area of your life needs more planting and less wishing?

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Stop arguing with the harvest. Start paying attention to the seeds. Because the life you want is grown long before it's lived.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

That's right. If this episode resonated with you or helped you in any way, we'd love for you to share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you're ready to go deeper, we created something for you. Head over to Ken and KimpPodcast.com, where you can get access to our full library of rebuild guides. These are step-by-step tools designed to help you actually apply what we talk about here. And if you want to connect with us, join our private Facebook community, the Rebuild Room, where we're having real conversations about rebuilding your life. We'll see you in the next episode.