Till the Field: A Year for Cultivation

耕す(tagayasu, cultivate, plow, till the field)
Calligraphy by William Reed

You never know where you will find wisdom, but it helps to be alert and listen to stories of how other people find it.

I asked a taxi driver the other day, ''How's business?''

''Terrible!'', he said. But he added something that I found to be quite profound.

''You know this is the Year of the Ox. Well, at the beginning of each year my father visits a well-known fortune teller to find out how this year is likely to go. There are twelve animals on the Chinese Zodiac, but he said they don't always act the same way. An Ox can be aggressive, like the fighting bulls in Spain, or it can be passive like a domesticated cow.

This year the Ox is in a ploughing mode, cultivating the field. That is why you see so many things being overturned and worked back into the soil. Things are being reset. That means some businesses will be swept away, as the old ways are restructured. That means that this year more than ever is a time to cultivate the soil and plant seeds for new projects which will bear fruit when it comes time to harvest."

This story actually inspired me to do the piece of calligraphy for the character shown here for tagayasu (耕す to cultivate, plow, till the field).

Perhaps the best way to profit from this lesson is to actively participate in the process.

What ingredients or resources do you have that can be churned into the mix?

How might you better mix with people and be proactive as a networker?

What sort of new collaborations and projects can you engage in to create new value?

What seeds can you plant that you are prepared to nurture as they grow?

In what way is the Ox ploughing up your field of business, creating new opportunities for you?

I think I got my my money's worth for taxi fare that afternoon. How about you?

Comments

[Jan Polak - The Adventupreneur]

Quite profound! In wealth dynamics we would say that the winter time serves to bring introspection, clarity and efficiency. It is about a careful selection and separate of the useful from not so useful and to prepare everything for a new season of growth, new spring.

Well, let me then get back to ploughing - my mind, my health, my relationships, my finances and my businesses.