Let nothing be wasted

I've had something interesting happen this summer. Our family has acquired a few animals, a garden and...well...essentially we've turned in to a small farm.

A funny thing has happened as I've cultivated this little patch of earth we were blessed with. I've learned the interdependence of me with nature and nature with me. I understood this a bit already. The outside cats protect the house from mice when the neighbor cuts the acres of alfalfa and wheat that surround my house. The dogs alert us when someone comes near. I, in exchange, provide food and love to them.

Here is actually how it all started [yes, this will apply to your writing/marketing in a moment]. In early spring my neighbor informed me that her duck had laid 13 fertilized eggs. Did I want pet ducks?

It really seemed easy enough for me to handle. Ducks need little more than water, right?

Of course, food prices being what they are, we'd already planned a rather large garden. I think it is about 6 or 7 feet long and nearly 5 feet wide.

Well, the ducks were in our garage doing what ducks do when I decided to take the big holes the dog dug in the front lawn and turn them in to a small duck pond. So my friend gave me some rubber they didn't need and suddenly I had a little pond. I sat outside and enjoyed watching my ducks every evening.

But stagnant water stinks.

So, I began to pump out the small pond every saturday and fill it with fresh water. I didn't want to waste the water, so I pumped it in the garden. Clearly duck pond water makes gardens happy because is SPRANG to life!

I began looking for new ways to connect things. I'd catch praying mantises and put them on my beans so that little bug predators wouldn't kill my crop. Also, ducks really liked the vegetable scraps so I'd chop up the ends of my carrots and beans and feed it back to the ducks. [a little recycling]

And then the chickens...

I'll stop. I think you're starting to see the picture. Each animal has a job and serves a purpose beyond the outward one. All parts of the 'farm' work to make a successful enterprise.

It is the same way with your writing business. Are you looking creatively at every area of your business. Are you looking at how your work in one area could cause growth in another? Are you looking at each project, at each part of your business, as something on its own, or are you seeking ways to grow overall with each small step.

If you're not yet, what is holding you back? Sometimes all it takes is one small contribution, like adding a duck to your yard, for all the pieces to fall in to place.

Your Coach for the Journey, Tiffany Colter