THE YIPPEE YANKEE YARD:A Big Lesson For The Business Man

You could see myriad of people flooding out of this little yard daily without you knowing exactly which room they are coming from. Most times you could wonder how this little yard could inhabit all these great number of people. But that’s not what am here to say today.

One day tsunami strucked this Yippee Yankee yard. A you could remember that  deluge that robbed people of their home in 2014 in some part of Rivers State of Nigeria.

Just like any other yard along that valley, the Yippee Yankee Yard was flooded with a heavy flood chasing out all the community of people on that yard away. This was a big catastrophe as these community of yippese are now without home . But they have only two options: either to wait for the flood to dry up, they could continue life or seek for another home elsewhere, maybe another Yippee Yankee.

But my pity is for the owner of that property. Is he going to allow is investment vanish in the hand of flood? Or could he pick up his pieces  and see the opportunity in that catastrophe to make his property more organized?

All these questioned I could not answer until late January 2017 when I crossed Yippee Yankee only to discover that it has turned to refuse dump with mighty grasses covering this wonderful yard that was flooded with community of people just 4 years ago.

Immediately, it came to my mind that that is how too many people live their lives. Just like that yard, too many of us has the potential to become great…we even know it, we have discovered what we want to achieve….and we are working hard to see it come true. But too many of us allow the weed of negativity, weed of discouragement occupy the space of our dream when we meet adversity in life. Only few understand that every “adversity has an equal seed of opportunity that  can grow into a mighty oak of fortune”  To many of us would have been highly successful businessperson, career person, etc only if we were able to seek the blessing in disguise in the obstacles we encountered in life.

Accept Change

 When we make changes in our lives, it is like planting a new seed of what we want to grow in the garden of our life. At first, it may take a while for that seed to germinate, and we must water it and nurture it with our thoughts and attention. It may seem like nothing is happening in the beginning, because growth is taking place under the surface where no one can see it, but that seed of change is forming roots that must first be grounded before the change starts to become visible.

When we see the first shoots from that seed break the surface, we are excited, because we can see the fruits of our labors starting to take form, but that seedling is still very fragile. We must be very careful at this earliest stage of growth not to allow anyone to trample the seedling of change that is starting to bloom in our garden. We must protect that new life until it has grown strong, and we must nurture it with plenty of light, feed it constantly with our positive thoughts, and water it regularly with our emotions of joy, passion, love and excitement.

Negative thoughts are like weeds in the garden. Nature abhors a vacuum, and will immediately fill any empty space. If you do not plant enough positive seeds, then weeds of negativity will start to grow in the cracks. What do you do when you see weeds in your garden? Do you freak out, fearing that they are taking over, and worrying that the beautiful garden you are planting will be ruined? That will only happen if you do nothing about the weeds of negativity - if you allow them to continue growing, then they will take over the garden of your mind and of your life, because weeds grow prolifically if left unchecked. They can rob the light from the seeds you have planted, overshadowing them and choking the life out of them, but only if you allow this to occur. Since you love your garden, and you love the seeds you have planted, you can recognize the weeds of negativity, and choose to carefully weed them out of the garden of your mind.

You do not need to hate the weeds of negativity, or to be afraid of them. Simply pull them out gently, getting as much of the root as you can. Of course, if you don't get to the root of what is causing the weeds of negative thoughts to grow in your mind, then those weeds of negativity will grow back, but you can always pull them out again. The key is not to focus all your energy on the negative weeds, but focus your energy, time and attention on nurturing the seeds that you want to grow. If you focus on growing plenty of positive seeds, there will be no more room for weeds to grow and those that do you can pull out right away.

As you nurture these seeds of change that you have planted, they will grow strong and flourish, becoming very resilient to withstand any storms that come their way. In time, these seedlings will become the garden of your life, and the seeds that you have planted will blossom and bear abundant fruit. As with all gardens, you must be patient, nurturing and diligent in growing the garden of your dreams.

Remember, it is your garden, and only you can decide what you choose to plant there, and what you consider to be weeds. Not everyone will like the look of your garden, and they may even try to tell you what to plant where, what to keep and what to pull out. But it is not up to them to tell you what to grow in the garden of your life, they have their own garden to tend.

Some people do not like change at all, they want all gardens to look the same, and stay the same, because then they feel in control. When you start to change your life, it causes a ripple effect that changes everything and everyone around you - like the butterfly effect, because we are all connected. When you change, some of the people in your life will grow and change with you, like your friend who was willing to have a reading with me. She has decided to change her life also, so she can be happy, and you are both changing and growing together.

You can always reach out a hand to help someone else to grow with you to the next level, but you can only offer your hand for so long before you must choose to move onward and upward, perhaps even leaving them behind. Some people may not want to change at all, and they won't want you to change either, because your changes affect them. These people will have a tendency to want to pull you back down into old places where they are more comfortable, because they want to keep things the way they were. You may find yourself needing to spend less time with these people who are attached to the old you.

Remember that you cannot make anyone else happy, because you cannot make anyone do anything they don't want to do. Some people may not even want to be happy, and you may have to accept that perhaps they are happy being unhappy. Perhaps they like to grow weeds in their garden, because they like the flowers those weeds produce in the garden of their lives. That is up to them, but you do not have to allow them to scatter the seeds of their weeds in your garden. Some of those seeds will naturally get carried on the wind from your neighbor's garden, but as they start to grow, you pull them out of your garden and do not let them take hold.

Nurture the seedlings of positive change that are starting to show in your life right now, and do not let the weeds of self-doubt take over the fertile garden of your mind. They are simply weeds, and you must lovingly pull them out, honoring and nurturing all that you choose to grow right now. Be patient, soon your garden will be in full bloom. And remember, if something you have planted is not to your liking, you can always pull it out and plant something new. Such is the nature of the garden of life. Don't be like the Yippee Yankee Yard