SL Life Lessons: Measure Your Productivity by How Much Seed You Sow

A farmer who sows seeds often times has to wait days, weeks, months or even years before reaping a harvest. Given the time it takes for seeds to produce a harvest, the farmer doesn’t measure his/her productivity by “immediate” results. The farmer measures his/her productivity by how much seed he/she sows. It’s only by the sowing of seeds, that a harvest can be produced.

When we perform certain actions to see our goals come to pass, we shouldn’t measure our productivity by “immediate” results. Instead, we should measure our productivity by the actions we’ve sown to bring our goals to pass. For example, if one wants to attain an education or graduate with honors, he/she should measure productivity by how much time, effort and energy is spent studying. If one wants to lose weight, he/she should measure productivity by how much time, effort and energy is spent exercising, eating healthy foods and getting high quality sleep.

When we measure our productivity based on “immediate” results, it can appear the actions we’ve sown are fruitless and unproductive, causing us to give up. If we delay or stop “sowing” (true signs of being unproductive) we’re guaranteed not to reap our desired result.

Measuring productivity by the time, energy and effort sown to attain a desired result can keep us from being distracted by the passage of time and provide greater assurance that we’ll be able to reap the desired “harvest” from the “seed” we sow.