Plant It Like It's Yours

The two pear trees in the picture are mine. As you can see, they are really showing fruit, and this should be a good year for me to get some pears. But let me tell you the story behind them...

I planted those trees (and several others) about thirteen years ago for my neighbor. He wasn't in good health, so my son and I spent an afternoon planting them for him. I put them the right distance apart, dug a nice, deep hole for each, and made sure they would get the proper amount of sunlight. I watered them and put up supports to make them grow straight and tall. After a few years, they started putting out some of the most delicious pears I'd ever tasted...but they weren't my pears, even though I had planted the trees.

A few years ago, we purchased the property from my neighbor when he moved out of state. Suddenly, those trees and all their fruit were officially mine. And here's the important part: The work I had done when it didn't seem like it would matter was now my reward. If I had done just a half-hearted job on planting them, stuck them wherever, and let everything grow up around them, they would have probably died or, at the very least, not done as well as they are now. Instead, I planted those trees as if they were mine, even though there was no indication they ever would be--and now I am reaping the rewards.

There may be times when you are given the opportunity to plant a seed for someone else, perhaps in a job you help them complete (or you do altogether), a project you have a huge, unsung role in, or in other areas. You may not get any credit for it, and you may spend a long time watching someone else benefit from the "fruit" you planted for them, but that's okay. Do it as if it were yours.

It's so easy to only want to be there for someone when it's convenient or when it directly benefits us. If there is no obvious reward for helping — or worse, if someone else is going to get the credit — we politely bow out. But what future opportunities are we missing out on?

Put forth the best effort you can, do what's asked, and even a little extra if possible. Show up and make the most of the opportunity. Who knows? At some point down the line, you could suddenly find yourself reaping the benefits for the job well done. Even if you don't, you have gained experience and knowledge you can use in the future — and you will have shown the people around you exactly what kind of person you are.

Tackle every opportunity to help someone else as if it were yours. Do the absolute best you can whenever you can. Be a person of excellence, even when it doesn't seem like it'll matter.

Because someday, before you know it, it just might.