Grow Like a Plant

Spring in the greenhouse is all about growing. It starts with seeds, plugs and tubers. Then water, sunlight, and nourishment. And finally some helpful pruning to encourage strength and maximize beauty. 

Some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in the greenhouse are related to the way plants grow and how that can be applied to the way we think about our own personal growth.

1. Growth comes with sacrifice. And patience.

before and after initial flower snipping

After planting any type of flower, the reward is seeing the first blooms appear and enjoying the color and beauty that emerges. In the greenhouse, when those first blooms appear, we have the emotionally difficult job of removing them from the plant, sometimes cutting the plant to half its size. Compost bins are filled with stems and colors while planted pots are left with only a few green leaves above the soil.

Although removing the blooms feels wrong, it allows the plant to focus its energy into its root system and into developing new stems and buds. This ultimately leads to a healthier, stronger, and more beautiful flower. For some time, this growth is not easily visible since the roots are buried below the soil, and it takes a lot of faith and experience to know that you’ve done the right thing.

In our own lives and careers, it’s often hard to let go of something that either looks or feels good in exchange for a benefit that we can’t immediately see. Sometimes the exchange is painful or destructive, and the results we’re after are either not guaranteed or so far off in the future that the sacrifice becomes too heavy of a burden. Commonly, we postpone or avoid the sacrifice altogether, proceed as we are, and ultimately struggle longer or never reach our full bloom potential.

Growth opportunities can also be thought of as a step sideways or even backward. Instead, we should consider this shift as reallocating energy away from temporary achievement in order to cultivate long-term success. 

Personally, I’ve experienced this on multiple scales - from something as small as taking time out of productivity to participate in training, to something as large as trying a new job or career path. The perceived sidetrack eventually led to greater results over time.

2. Growth is inconsistent and distinct.

Individually, growth typically comes in successions. Each succession is unique, just as each plant is unique. Some plants grow fast and then sustain their size and shape, some grow slow and continually. Some grow tall, some spread wide, some vine, and some stay compact. Some provide continuous blooms, some are self-cleaning, and some require external intervention to remove spent blooms and make way for new ones.

Within the field of architecture, it seems that growth is intended to be the same for everyone. The track is prescribed: education, experience, examination, and then licensure. Become a Project Architect, get promoted, become a PM, buy into a firm (or start your own). 

But the truth is that, much like plants, people don’t grow in unison, even under similar conditions. And because of this, we are not all on the same track.

At various points through the years, it’s been easy for me to forget that we all grow and exist differently. I’ve had expectations of what my career was supposed to be, what I was to have accomplished by a certain age, and what experiences I should have gained. At times, it pushed me forward and held me accountable. But it also made me think I needed to be a petunia when I was a geranium.

3. Growth doesn’t always happen where we expect it.

Throughout the greenhouse we find flowers blooming in all the wrong places. Within rows of thriving potted flowers some seeds will never sprout, even when provided the proper sunlight, water, nutrition, and care. Meanwhile, a flower will pop up through cracks in the concrete floor and in other odd places, won’t be tended to properly, but will somehow thrive. 

Sometimes the right environment for growth is not what we expect.

pansy growing through a crack in the concrete floor slab

Just as most flowers thrive in prescribed conditions, most architects are able to succeed within (and prefer) the paths and parameters offered by the profession. I wanted to be one of those people, and when it didn’t work for me, I thought it meant I wasn’t cut out to be an architect. It took a long time for me to realize that some of us just don’t grow in the ideal environment and need to find our own unique place to flourish.

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Happy Growing!

Sarah