Eric Patrick Marr

“If a plant seems to stop growing or has slowed growth, it has likely become pot-bound.”

- Guide to Houseplants

Every one of us knows this feeling. Of being “pot-bound” in life.

I hate it.

When we – our minds, ideas, energies or potential – are being squeezed by those around us. At work, at home (quite common), socially… anywhere.

It’s like a flourishing plant that is outgrowing its pot. You start to feel that stress, the frustrating pressure of your roots (your energy) being restricted by surrounding walls.

And what do Green Thumbs do when a plant begins to outgrow its pot? They repot it into a larger environment – so it can naturally keep growing and not whither.

The same holds true for our lives. I propose that along our journeys we must repot ourselves at least a few times – if not more. So we can experience all our lives have to really offer.

But sometimes in our lives we struggle emotionally with repotting ourselves – uprooting ourselves. It can appear daunting or troublesome. Disruptive. But how else will you ever realize your maximum life when your surrounding are binding and restricting you?

Often, people feel “guilty for leaving the old pot behind”… or even worse, “obligated to the past.”

And rarely, if ever, do we know for sure what the future holds. (By contrast, we can easily predict our current walls will always be there, causing frustration.)

I propose that the only way to fulfill your ultimate desires in life is to keep growing and to keep expanding. To keep pushing past “boundaries.”

It is perfectly natural, in fact.

But the difference between a pot with clay walls and your life’s walls is your walls are typically other people and their opinions. It doesn’t require courage to repot a green plant, but it requires a great deal to say “no thanks” to a limiting human mind when you’ve already built a relationship with it.

And it always comes down to this choice – who is going to decide your future? You? Or your walls?

I vote for you to decide your future. In the words of my all-time favorite author, Paulo Coelho, “If you are brave to say ‘goodbye,’ life will reward you with a new ‘hello.’”