Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. Ephesians 5:15
“When we talk about necessary endings, it’s one thing to understand the theory behind the three reasons for pruning—good but not best, sick but not getting well, and long since dead—but it’s another thing entirely to apply those concepts in real life. We can’t execute endings in theory only, so they have to be clear in reality. The question is, What defines reality?
When pruning a rosebush, the first step is to ask, “What does a rose look like?” In other words, you have to know the standard you are pruning toward. The gardener knows what a healthy bud, branch, or bloom looks like and prunes with that standard in mind. The same thing is true in business and life—we have to have a good definition of what we want the outcome to look like and prune toward that…
Pruning is not easy. It is hard and there will be people who don’t like it, no matter what you do. You have to decide where your lines are, the values with which you will execute them, and go forward… Not every activity nor every person is a rose or will ever be one. One might be a great chrysanthemum, but remember, you are growing a rose of a business or life. So you have to begin by defining what you are pruning toward and the criteria by which you will keep or clip…
You can’t prune toward anything if you don’t know what you want. You have to figure out what you are trying to be or build and then define what the pruning standards are going to be. That definition and those standards will bring you to the pruning moments… “If you don’t know where you are heading, you’ll get there” applies to pruning as well. Define what you are shooting for, and then prune against that standard. That is when vision, goals, and even teams begin to take the shape that you desire.”
Henry Cloud in Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2011) 26-30.
What standard are you pruning toward?
I was messaging with a friend yesterday and the topic of the values of the team in sports history with the highest winning percentage came up: the New Zealand All Blacks.
One of their values is this: “Go for the Gap: When you are top of your game, change your game.”
Think about it. Most tend to rest on their laurels when they are on top of their game. Those who prune change their game and bear more fruit. Is that you? Do you want it to be?
Today I want to challenge you to pray with me about what standard you prune toward.
We will not get where we want to go in our generous living, giving, serving, and loving if we do not know where we are heading and prune toward that goal.