If you haven’t started yet, why not? What is stopping you?
There are lots of reasons people don’t start something they want to do. And we can go over these in more blog posts. Let us know in the comments below if you have something specific you’d like us to discuss. But today lets talk about one of the most common, it’s one I have struggled with many times…
Perfectionism.
I know I’ve avoided starting many things due to this (including this blog!). I’m frequently feeling like I need more time, or to learn more, to purchase more materials I might need, read more books or blog posts, more time to work on my thoughts… etc. etc. before I can get started. It can be never-ending.
But consider this…
Plants only need a few things in order to take care of themselves and “do the rest” for us. Air, water, nutrients, light, a place to anchor their roots and a space that isn’t too hot or too cold.
Wow, that seems like a lot to deal with! But remember the “80/20 Rule”. If you get it 20% right, you’ll end up getting 80% of the results. Is it difficult to get it better than “20% right”?
Not at all! When we grow indoors, using hydroponics we have complete control of the items on that list. You can be pretty sloppy and still get better than “20% right”. We’ll come to these details – how we control these things in an upcoming blog post. Its really simple.
For now, let me prepare you by saying, I have made mistakes that have killed plants in a few cases. The biggest area for “accidents” is the beginning. Seedlings can be very weak and fragile. The same for clones/cuttings. This is also the time when you have the least “invested”. The least money, effort and time (which is the hardest thing to recover – we can’t get time back). So it’s the easiest time to recover, and start over if we must. Making mistakes is one of the best ways we learn. I remember lessons from my mistakes much better than the lessons from books I’ve read.
I don’t mean to make it sound scary and difficult to get plants started. But it can be painful to pay $10 for a seed only to have the seedling sprout and die off after a couple days. It happens. And if you must have everything perfect, you’re bound to be disappointed. But if you accept that you don’t have to be perfect, you may need a couple tries to be successful, and you keep at it, you will be successful. And maybe you can plan for that, first choosing seeds that might produce lower quality bud, but cost $1 instead of $18 a seed (yes, I once accidentally killed an $18 seed, made me very sad, but I learned some lessons that are still with me today).
Once you get past the early stages of the plant’s life, the plant gets much more forgiving and easier to take care of (and much harder to kill).
But it can be hard to get started, when feeling like everything must be done perfectly. Sometimes I find it helpful to ask myself: “What would I do if it was impossible to fail?” If I do fail and learn something from it, it’s not a failure, because I’ve learned something from it!
Stick with us, and we’ll guide you through the challenges of getting started. And we’ll share our mistakes with you, so you can avoid many of the “learning experiences” we went through.
But when a mistake can’t be avoided, view it as a “learning experience” – a lesson that provides valuable information on how you can improve.
It’s OK to not be perfect. Especially when you’re starting out. We know – we’ve been there!
Leave a comment below and let us know what is stopping you? and how did you get past it.