The Doing Well Newsletter | Vol. 15
by Jesse Katches
Do You Feel Like You’re Not Progressing?
do you ever get overwhelmed by the feeling that you’re not making any progress?
a few years back after moving to New York, i felt i was headed in the right direction with my life, but overall i was frustrated. i didn’t seem to be making any progress in my career and while my mental health was improving, i still felt like i was constantly backsliding and falling into some old, unproductive, patterns from my past.
but it was around this time that i traveled back to California and reluctantly took a day trip with my girlfriend and her family to a garden that, to my surprise, ultimately lead me to learn a valuable lesson.
while we spent our time exploring the garden, i saw a variety of beautiful plants that stood out, but it was actually one that i was visually familiar with that had the greatest impact on me that day, bamboo.
at some point in our adventure, we wandered down a path that almost immediately transformed from a public garden with open skies to a serene, enclosed, bamboo forest which seemed to teleport us into another world.
i don’t know if it was the silence, the cool breeze through the leaves, or the gentle sway of tall bamboo trees that did it, but i felt as thought i’d fallen into a trans, hypnotized by the beauty and unable to pull away from the calm.
my girlfriend and her family continued on as i sat on a bench and took in nothing but the sights and sounds of the forest in that moment.
im uncertain about how much time passed before i was called back to the group, but when i continued on, i felt a strong urge to understand more about those trees that i felt such a palpable connection to.
and as i researched i came across a bit of information that completely blew my mind, because i realized that it was something both of our species have in common…
it was the idea of compound growth.
i used to believe that compounding was just an investing term that i only slightly understood, and while i’m certain i still have much to learn about the power of the concept, those bamboo trees taught me that compounding expands beyond the world of finances and into every aspect of our own personal journey.
because what i learned about bamboo that day, was that after they’re initially planted in the ground, there will be no visible growth for roughly 5 years until, seemingly overnight, they emerge and grow around 90 feet tall in a span of about 5 weeks, transforming into the towering trees that we all know.
however, for the first 5 years, they’re not dormant, they’re laying roots, putting in the work that no one can see, they’re compounding their growth so that one day they can breach the surface and become the trees they were meant to be.
do you ever feel like a bamboo tree under the soil, laying your roots, still waiting to emerge?
do you ever start something, meditation, journaling, exercising, that you feel will change your life, your career, improve your mental health, only to quit doing it after a week, a month, even a year, because you don’t see the results you want?
how different would your life be if you committed and persisted as you laid the roots? if you stuck with the things that you knew would improve your life even when you didn’t see the growth you wanted right away?
how often do you blame yourself, and assume that you’re the problem, that you’re just broken and some things don’t work for you, when in reality, you’re just not giving yourself enough time and credit to see it through?
believe me, i can write this with such conviction because i relate to the feeling all too well. and i know it’s far too easy to quit when we feel trapped below the surface, but remember this…
every decision we make, small or big, is a step towards the person we’re becoming in the future. each of those steps don’t look like much to start, but they add up over time, they compound.
if you mess up, if you backslide, if you miss a week of doing what you should, that’s ok. because persistence is the key to compound growth, and whether we’re talking about planting trees or improving our mental health, compound growth looks like an overnight change from the outside, but we know the truth, that the real growth happens below the soil, before others see us become the beautiful bamboo trees we’re meant to be.
so use this moment to take note of the things you’re doing for yourself, your mental health, your career, and your life, that you know will payoff but you’re not seeing the progress you’d like quite yet. observe those things, reinforce your commitment to them, stay persistent, and remind yourself that all living things are connected at the end of the day, and you and bamboo have a lot more in common than you may have realized.
now go have a wonderful and safe weekend, and as always - i love you and i’m here for you if you need me .
Jesse
P.S. i’m going to start adding in a section to my newsletter of resources (tools, books, podcasts, etc.) that i find helpful. so ill start now with a book that i gained a lot of value from as i read it this past week.