Are We Giving Ourselves the Space to Grow?
I recently went to a garden shop and bought a beautiful baby olive tree. I’m obsessed with Olive trees. They are my second favourite tree, after Palm trees.
Anyway, I picked out a pot that I thought was perfect. I know very little about gardening if i'm honest, but I thought it was the right size and fitting for my patio. When I got back, I potted and watered the tree. I thought that was it. I was happy with it.
The next day, my gardener came over. As he was working, he noticed the tree.
"It’s a beautiful tree. I like it," he said in his heart warming Andalusian Spanish. "But do you want it to grow?"
A rhetorical question that had me intrigued. Of course, I wanted it to grow.
Without saying much else, he disappeared and came back a few minutes later with a much larger pot, four or five times bigger than the one I had chosen.
He confidently proceeded to repot the tree and said, "This is much better. This will allow your tree to grow.”
And just like that, seeing the two pots side-by-side gave me a bit of a revelation.
How Often Do We Keep Ourselves in a Space That’s Too Small?
The truth is, I never questioned the size of the original pot. I thought it was fine. It worked imo. The tree fit.
But just because something works doesn’t mean it’s setting us up for growth.
How often do we do this in our lives and careers? How often do we settle into spaces, routines, or mindsets that are comfortable, not realising they’re limiting us?
It’s not always obvious. We might not feel restricted at first. But then something happens, and we realise we’ve been operating within boundaries that feel like they are suffocating us.
Creating Room for Growth
The interesting thing is, the tree could survive in both pots. But one kept it contained, while the other made room for its full potential.
How many times do we put ourselves in situations that are ‘good enough’ without knowing we were meant for so much more?
Not because we’re doing something wrong, but because we’re simply used to what is instead of imagining what could be.
Make room for growth
This isn’t about rushing growth or constantly chasing the next big thing. It’s about asking ourselves:
Are we making space for the next version of ourselves?
Are we in an environment that allows us to expand?
Or are we unknowingly keeping ourselves in a space that’s too small?
I know one thing, when this tree starts to grow, I’ll remember the lesson it gifted me. If we want. to grow, we need to make room for it.
Here’s to making room for what’s next.
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