MiracleGrow(th)

Back when I was pretending to be a football coach, one of my players (let’s call him Tom) came into my office one morning during our August two-a-day workout sessions.  Tom informed me that he was likely to grow 5-6 inches and gain 10-20 pounds by week’s end.  I immediately began asking questions.

Tom had gone home after the previous day’s workouts, completely depleted.  His mother had mixed several gallons of green liquid and left them on the kitchen table.  Tom assumed his mother had prepared Gatorade to replenish his electrolytes after an exhausting day of practice.  He quickly downed one gallon and was working on a second one when his mom entered the room and began yelling at him.  Her mixture was not Gatorade after all; rather, it was Miracle Grow, which she had prepared for her garden plants.

Tom concluded that if Miracle Grow could work such wonders on plant life, then he could expect commensurate biological dividends from his consumption of the same.

Obviously, Tom didn’t add 5 inches in height nor 15 pounds of body weight (not until after he graduated, of course).

Grow we should (personally and professionally), but it is never the result of magic potions or shortcuts.  Affectatious growth is the result of a deliberate “fitness regimen” which we prescribe for ourselves and engage in with daily discipline.  Of course, we have the option of NOT “growing” ourselves in those dimensions (and many make that choice).

What is not available to us is a magic elixir (such as Tom’s mistaken assertion that Miracle Grow would provide some sort of physiological shortcut to Amazon-ness).  

The old saying of “inch by inch, life’s a cinch” applies to our personal growth.  We get to prescribe the menu, the regimen, the routine, and the growth most assuredly follows.  Or NOT, if that’s what we choose.