Welcome to Week Two of our Change Reflection Series! ❤ A space for your heart to connect with your mind. ❤
Last week, we reflected on
- How we feel about endings
- What might be our own necessary endings
- What’s holding us back from making them
With these introspections behind us, are you ready to explore the idea of Pruning as a vital part for growth in both your personal and professional spheres?
That’s the focus of chapter 2 in Dr. Henry Cloud’s book Necessary Endings. Don’t worry—there will be plenty of opportunities to reflect on how these ideas resonate with your own life.
Pruning: Growth Depends on Getting Rid of the Unwanted or the Superfluous
Pruning is the proactive, intentional act of creating necessary endings. Just as a rosebush requires pruning to reach its full potential, we too must cut away what no longer serves us to thrive personally and professionally.
Dr. Cloud draws parallels from master gardeners, explaining that the branches and buds we cut can fall into three categories:
The Three Categories of Pruning
- Healthy branches that are good, but not the best.
- Sick branches that aren’t going to recover.
- Dead branches that are taking up valuable space needed for the healthy parts to thrive.
While the book delves deeper into these types of pruning and their related endings, let’s focus on two key ideas here:
Key Takeaways
- Just like a rosebush, your personal and professional life produces more opportunities, activities, and connections than you can sustain.
- Your time, energy, talent, emotions, and financial resources are limited. Any part of your life that drains these resources without aligning with your vision needs to be pruned.
That’s a lot to process. Let’s pause for a moment and reflect.
Picture a rosebush in full bloom—imagine its vibrant colors and fragrance.
Close your eyes for a moment and picture your personal and professional relationships, activities, and goals as buds on the rosebush of your life.
Which ones are OK, but not the best?
Which ones are withering despite your best efforts?
Which ones are dead, standing in the way of new growth?
Acknowledging that the rosebush of your life isn’t where you want it to be is the first step. Bringing it into full bloom requires tough pruning and honest self-assessment. Consider these statements:
Dr. Henry Cloud
- Pruning is a natural part of life’s seasons and a requirement for growth.
- When pruning is not happening, average or worse will occur.
What do you think about the three types of pruning?
How does the idea of pruning make you feel?
It’s perfectly normal to feel uneasy—even anxious. Self-awareness is the key to managing these feelings and moving forward.
Now that we’ve covered the importance of pruning, it’s time to visualize your personal rosebush. Like master pruners, you don’t just aimlessly start clipping away. You want to develop a clear picture in your mind what your standard or goal is you’re pruning toward. Or in other words, you want to define success and how you’re going to measure it.
These are challenging questions, but they’re critical for getting comfortable with endings as a necessary part of your personal and professional growth journey.
Today was a time to reflect on
- The Rosebush of your Life and what it looks like at the moment
- What you want it to look like
- How do you feel about the idea of Pruning to get the Rosebush you desire
If you’d like support working through these tough questions, I’d be honored to walk with you. Feel free to reach out for a free coaching consultation, and we’ll take the next step together.
Next week, we’ll dive into Chapter 3 of Necessary Endings
Normalizing Necessary Endings: Welcome the Seasons of Life into Your Worldview
With gratitude, Renate
Written with ❤️ in Chiang Mai 🇹🇭