So, there will be different stages of cultivation before harvest – before the wheats develop to the point where people can place value on and enjoy the value it brings! E.g: it goes through sowing, nurturing, fertilizing, pruning, weeding, gathering/dressing for the barn/market etc. Each phase demands a proper attention!

The process of the reapers prepping the wheat for harvest/the barns, puts the tares in the field to where they belong – trash.

Essentially, regardless of the presence of those “tares” in your field, your focus ought to be around prepping your wheats for harvest/the barns. Do this and you’ll see that you’ve both created a gateway of happiness and reward for you and others, and also taken care of the tares in the process!

Knowing your harvest – your desired outcome creates focus that determines what/where energy needs to be channeled to and what should be worked on!

You see, the tares are a big distraction designed to weaken/stunt the DEVELOPMENT of your wheats by usurping or competing unhealthily with the useful energy that would have been invested in growing your wheats.

So an ability to stay #Focus on and prep the wheat for a desired harvest and subsequently the barns, notwithstanding the presence of the tares, is a must have and a game changer for every reaper/famer –  individual!

The lesson these folks were being taught was really about resilience and the ability to channel their energies properly to focus on what matters in the midst of distractions; they were being taught how to forge ahead and achieve desired results in unfavourable/difficult circumstances! #ResilientFocus

Staying #Focused in a heavily distracted world like ours, is Golden!

So one would think that the best way to deal with the tares will be to just root them out, but this story advises otherwise. The core lesson of this story is that one can’t achieve the RIGHT results by working or focusing on what is WRONG! And the best way to change an undesirable results/patterns is to identify the desired results/patterns, and simply stay focused on achieving desired results!.

Then remember:

1. No one can fertilize, prune, and prep for the barns what hasn’t been sown or expect a harvest from a seed that hasn’t been cultivated! So let’s raise our game and focus on cultivating the results we desire regardless of the tares!

2. If we keep looking at the weather – external or internal, we will not sow, cultivate anything desirable, and hence can’t harvest anything desirable!

We acknowledge the tares but focus on the developing the wheats that’ll displace them and produce the field outcomes – society we desire! if we KEEP focusing on the wrong/trivial issues, we would be left with little or no energy to exert in driving tangible desirable outcomes and realising our most important goals!

3. Those who’ve produced and/or are producing desirable results, had/are having some tares to deal with also, but they did/are doing so smartly with the right FOCUS of ENERGY!

4. If you keep focusing on what is wrong, you’ll keep getting the wrong results. Working on what is wrong is like working on the wrong thing, and that will never produces the right result.

Confront what’s wrong strictly from the place of developing solutions to solve them!

5. In life and in every field, the tares will always be present with the wheats but our focus should be on developing our wheats and not uprooting the tares! of course the best way to uproot the tares is by cultivating the wheats!

6. You saw that they collectively took a stand against the tares that invaded their field; they had none of them supporting the tares. Likewise, we must collectively become genuinely concerned about the future of our society/children and lend a STRONG voice toward solving our social challenges and building systems and institutions that will displace the tares – everything we do not desire in our society!

For any society to see the desirable future they deserve or for people to push their society in the right direction of progress, they must learn to take decisive collective stand against the systems crippling or that’ll potentially cripple their desired harvest. No one should be seen supporting/defending the tares of poor governance.

The parable of the wheats and tares is a lesson on:

a. Growing and sustaining potentials from the ground where it is cultivated, to the grand stage (barn) where it is optimised and celebrated for the value it adds.

b. It’s about producing desirable results out of the most challenging circumstances;

c. It’s about raising scrupulous leaders in an environment that is badly infested by unscrupulous ones;

d. It is about #StayingFocusedOnWhatMatters. The ability to #Focus Right and PUSH outcomes in the right direction is Golden! It is one of the determinants of results in life!

So basically, human life and society is designed to be SHAPED by what people FOCUS on and how they engage with/manage the challenges they’re exposed to. Focus FEEDS the mind and the mind SHAPES everything else. Whether as individuals or a society, it’s expedient for us to check the QUALITY of issues we’re focusing on and the motives behind our engagements! Our focus would determine what is magnified or amplified in both life and society!

We need to ask ourselves if we’re keeping the right focus and making the right investments for the life and society we want.

The BIG Questions

Though, we had wished the tares were rooted out completely from our field, but now we know that won’t happen. So given that our wheats will have to grow among tares (some unfavourable circumstances exacerbated by some unscrupulous elements), the questions from here then are:

How do we still grow our wheats (potentials) to the harvests we desire and into the right barns (in a sustainable way) notwithstanding the tares – the odd against us? #PutOnYourThinkingCap

How do we grow our nation to rank among the top 3 in the world given her many years of ravaging leadership?

Our Overarching Focus

And regardless of the tares around our core institutions and governance systems, our overarching focus should be on building a society that is dignified and respected among nations!

I am deeply rooting for you so that notwithstanding the tares, may your/our wheats (our huge potentials) make it from the ground of cultivation to the grand stand of the barn – the place of desired outcomes, great value exchange and reward for you/our society at large/the future generation!

Finally, guard your field (heart/mind) with all diligence for it is in and from them that the defining seeds/influences that shape life/society are sowed, nurtured & unleashed for Impact.

Cheers to your great harvest/our emerging desirable nation regardless of the tares!
#PerspectiveShift

People’s experience of life is largely shaped by their perspectives which could  either be empowering or disempowering. So, make it a duty to diligently seek and develop healthy perspectives about life for out of them your experiences in life would be shaped.

In case you missed the part 1 of the power of perspective, you can read it here