The trees are gone. You’re probably wondering what happened. Maybe I just outlived the trees.
Just a few weeks ago, we took out the final tree in our backyard. Well, not the final tree, but the final tree that we planted. Let me explain. When we moved into this house, we planted three trees in our backyard. Our idea was to provide more shade, cover, and privacy. I remember the nursery telling us when we bought them that we were really risking ourselves, because the trees we picked don’t do well in our climate.
I heard them but thought that it was ok, because we predicted we’d live in this house for five, maybe 10 years at the most. Therefore, the trees were bound to make it for that short of time – not long considering a tree’s lifespan. I thought we will outlive the turnout and move before the tree die.
Well, guess what? It’s been almost 25 years that we’ve lived in this house. We certainly outlived the trees. So, what’s the lesson? The lesson is very simple. When my wife and I were landscaping our new home and made the decision to the buy the trees for our backyard, we figured it was the right move. Why? Because again, we were only making a decision for five years, maybe 10 years at most.
Wow, think about that. It’s got my reflecting on how we all think through things and specifically decisions. Often, we only consider the short-term impact but our decisions wind up making a long-term impact.
One funny thing about deciding to plant these trees was actually the cost. I remember when my wife found the bill. Almost 25 years ago, we paid $1500 dollars to plant three trees at $500 per tree. Then, we paid $850 dollars to remove the last tree. Alright, did we get our money’s worth? Yeah, we did! I am certainly not complaining, just chuckling. It’s rather ironic that we paid more to remove the tree and the stump that we did to plant the whole tree itself.
Again, we outlived the tree. I didn’t know that would happen, but it was a decision I made. In turn, I had to live with the consequences.
Another thing to consider is: in the decisions that we’re making, are we really thinking through the consequences and putting them in context of the right element of time? Sometimes we make decisions quick and fast, because we think it is only going to have a short and fast lifespan; however, it turns out having a much longer lifespan. Or maybe there are decisions that we take a long time to figure out because we feel they have a long-term implication, yet they end up only mattering for the short-term.
The lesson here is very simple: the time frame we associate with our decisions may not actually be what we think at the time we make the decision. It might be completely different.
Thanks for listening to another Mornings with Mark and pondering with me about my backyard landscape decisions. Now, I need to figure out what new trees we should put into our backyard. It’s ok, we’ll wait until next Spring.
Copyright 2020, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
