Have you ever heard the story of the Bamboo Tree? It is one of the most remarkable stories that we can learn from and here are some reasons why.
The Bamboo Tree Story
The Chinese bamboo tree requires nurturing through water, fertile soil and also with enough sunshine to ensure that it will grow. However, even with all of these elements in place you will never see any visible growth in the first year. If you continue to nurture the bamboo tree, after the second year, the same will happen, nothing will grow above the ground. And if you continue for the third and fourth year, you will also see nothing. Finally, in the fifth year, astonishingly, the bamboo tree will grow to eighty feet tall in just six weeks!
Why so? Within the first four years, the bamboo tree is growing, underground! The bamboo tree is a type of tree where it can grow super tall and because of this it requires strong foundations which involves developing a root system to support its outward growth. If the bamboo did not grow its root for a strong foundation for the first few years, it can never sustain its future tall structural body.
How does this relate to life? This metaphor explains what is happening to most people in life. For the first few years, no matter what you try to achieve, challenges faced or obstacles to overcome, it will be extremely difficult. Despite pouring in the necessary time and effort into trying to achieve your goals and dreams, nothing seems to be happening which is exactly like the bamboo tree. In the first few years, nothing seems to grow from the ground even when you fully nurture the tree, giving it enough water, providing it with a suitable soil and making sure it has enough sunshine. This is where most people give up but here is what we need to realise;
Six Life Lessons… from a Bamboo Tree
1. Success isn’t instant: even though you have poured in hard work and dedication to achieving your goals and dreams, it does not mean that you will get to see the result immediately.
2. Success requires strong foundations: spend time building a strong foundation. This is especially important if your goals are big and your dreams are beyond your current level.
3. Success relies on consistency: Aristotle believed that, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” It is what you do every day that matters, not what you do once in a while. Without consistently watering, nurturing and giving enough sunshine to the bamboo tree, it can never grow. It will never experience a full growth, and you may even kill it. And this is exactly how most people treat their goals and dreams. Success is about putting in the consistent effort.
4. Nurture your dreams: “Success is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t. ”A lot of people forget to nurture their dreams. They plan but when it is time to act, they either procrastinate or forget about the task altogether.
5. Believe in yourself: you need to believe in yourself and at the same time, work at your dreams, without doubt or question. Highly successful people understand that success is not easy because if it is easy, everyone will be successful. Because it is hard and requires tremendous effort, you must proceed with absolute belief without a shadow of doubts. You are the one who needs to believe in yourself and your dreams because if you don’t, nobody else would.
6. Patience and Persistence will pay off: success will never come fast and you will need to have the patience to go through the hard work in order to produce the result you desire. No matter what happens, keep telling yourself to move on and keep going forward. Never give up.
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Bamboo is truly an extraordinary plant. It is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world. When a storm or hurricane strikes, bamboo doesn’t break, because as it is tall and strong it is also flexible and can bend and sway in the wind, absorbing the storm’s energy but not giving into it.
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