Bamboo Mindset

[00:00:02] Welcome to Business Finance and Soul, my name is Shaun Enders, and I'm a curious entrepreneur. I love exploring business, personal finance and consciousness. I'll jump around topics, offer my opinions, and occasionally interviewing interesting people. Looking forward to going on this journey. Let's be curious together!

[00:00:22] Welcome back to Business Finance and Soul, I am Shaun Enders. Thank you for being here. I am not sure if you approach life like I approach life, but each day, obviously we go through challenges and we are setting goals.

[00:00:44] We have a list of responsibilities and a lot of that can be daunting, you know, to say the least. Because you have so much flying at you, you have these aspirations in life and a lot of times,

[00:00:56] just stay motivated, you know, staying on that path of, I guess, desire and greatness or at least being on the path of resilience and optimism. These are areas that it seems to come naturally for the people who just are perpetually in a good mood, upbeat.

[00:01:20] I would like to put myself in that category, but it doesn't come completely natural. So that's an admission. I look for, you know, this is kind of my hack.

[00:01:34] I look for things in the world where I can find a metaphor for life, where I can draw from inspiration or look for patterns and say, okay, how can that be applied in my own life?

[00:01:52] And so I don't just wake up really feeling like I'm going to conquer every single day. I look at things and I go, how does that relate to the way that I'm interacting with life now?

[00:02:05] How does this help me or provide an edge that I can use as leverage to be able to really conquer what I'm going after?

[00:02:19] Some days are easier than others. Sometimes I lack the inspiration and really have to go inward or find why it time to, to really draw from what I know to be true.

[00:02:32] So as I look at nature and I see really the parallels of our own lives, our own existence and how we can look at our surroundings and look at nature and say, okay, well, you know, what within nature acts like us.

[00:02:53] The answer is everything, but I chose bamboo as a great metaphor for life in this episode. The reason is is because my neighbor has bamboo and he has it in a planter box and I said, you know, why do you have it in the planter box?

[00:03:13] And you know, at first, look, you know, he was going to like, well, because it's super invasive. It spreads like crazy and so I thought about that for a second and it's sort of looking a little bit more into bamboo.

[00:03:29] And I thought you like find this interesting. So today, if anything, if the only thing you take away from today is increased knowledge in bamboo, that's great.

[00:03:41] If you look at bamboo and apply it to your life and it changes even one thing, then this will have hit its mark. And so I look at bamboo really as a rich metaphor for life in so many areas, the characteristics, the growth patterns.

[00:04:05] And I want to start by just talking about flexibility because one thing I noticed is bamboo bends really without breaking and it has, it has so many of

[00:04:27] of the similar characteristics of the way that you want to be in life. You know, the way that we all want to adapt to change, the way that we want to bounce back from adversity.

[00:04:37] You know, that resilience is crucial in our own life to overcoming obstacles. And I thought about that because when I'm most flexible, I am able to kind of navigate through challenges much easier.

[00:04:55] I look back to that comment about the roots and the invasiveness of what I noticed is that bamboo actually have very strong roots. You know, it's actually it's very anchored.

[00:05:10] And what I drew from that is how it teaches us the importance of having a solid foundation, whether our values, our relationships, our skills. What keeps us grounded during difficult times? I know why I was a late bloomer in life because my roots were not deep.

[00:05:32] I didn't have the solid foundation that I do now. And then I'm working on every day to continue to have a sense of conviction of what I stand for, that I look at and I say although I'm flexible.

[00:05:49] And my opinions are valuable in certain areas. I have core values. I have a North Star.

[00:05:57] And those are applied in my relationships and my skill set. And so I feel good about that. I feel good if if someone is not interested in me because of something that they don't value like I value, and it's a North Star for me.

[00:06:19] Okay with that, our energy's done a line. And so my roots are becoming stronger and maybe you were fortunate enough to start life with a really strong anchoring. But if you didn't and you were like me, you could always continue to grow your roots.

[00:06:35] One other thing I found really interesting about bamboo is that bamboo slow to start but then a house rapid growth.

[00:06:42] And I was like okay again, it is like myself because bamboo spends many years growing its roots before it sprouts above the ground. But once it does, it grows very quickly.

[00:06:58] And that really reflects the importance of patience, preparation. You know often success requires a lot of the unseen groundwork before anything visible starts to appear and you notice that within nature.

[00:07:13] You notice that you know things start at the seed, they start with the idea and we are no different. And that's something that I can hold with me as I continue to move along within my own life. Sometimes I want immediate success. I want to jump the line.

[00:07:34] I want to see the results so quickly. And I have to remember when you go back to nature, specifically when you look at bamboo as a metaphor for life, you look at it and you say, grow quickly eventually.

[00:07:55] Okay, not doesn't have to come right out of the gates. But I need to focus on it when I need to focus on those roots and bamboo is continuous growth. You know it grows continuously and rapidly once it starts. So in life you can keep pushing forward learning, growing throughout your life and really rest knowing that you don't ever have to settle for stagnation.

[00:08:24] You know oftentimes as people age, you can find yourself in that space of relevance. Right? When you're younger the whole world is there for you and it's all represents an opportunity.

[00:08:39] And then you reach that middle part of your life, you know it's really where I am right now of where you're growing. You bring value to the organization you work for and you contribute in a way that's meaningful.

[00:08:54] But what about in that next chapter of where maybe you retired, repivated into more volunteering or something to that extent? We're always going to be growing.

[00:09:05] We're always going to be pushing forward and we should never settle for a moment of where we are not contributors. So I really love that the bamboo always grows rapidly and continuously once it gets going.

[00:09:23] Simplicity and purpose, you know when we think about bamboo as a wood and its versatility it has a wide variety of applications from construction to food to art.

[00:09:38] I love watching the pandas at, you know, I'm at San Diego. So we have them here at the San Diego Zoo and it's crazy because as you and I both know how hard bamboo is and they crack it and eat it.

[00:09:55] And it's pretty awesome, but this versatility of bamboo as an application really can teach us to be adaptable to be open to different roles and opportunities in life.

[00:10:10] The simplicity, you know, despite its strength and utility bamboo is super simple very unassuming. You know, it's actually beautiful in its simplicity. If you look at bamboo, I mean there's not a lot to it right.

[00:10:29] It doesn't have this heavy floral pattern. It doesn't have a blooming moment of where you're waiting all season for the flowers to bloom to where you're in awe of it.

[00:10:44] It's simplicity and its unassuming nature is where the beauty comes from. And I think that simplicity reminds us to stay humble and appreciate the beauty in being straightforward and genuine.

[00:11:00] It doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not. And that in itself is a lesson. You know, one of the things that I looked at when I looked at bamboo is a sustainable resource and how quickly it regenerates how it really requires minimal resources.

[00:11:26] And when you look at sustainability in our own life, the way that we care for our environment, the way that we're mindful of the way that we live.

[00:11:39] You know, we're all brought up myself included. You know, with just consumers and being right at the front and center of everything. And so thinking about sustainability, thinking about requiring minimal resources.

[00:11:54] You just, again, looking at nature and drawing the conclusions that meet the moment of really your own life's adaptation and your own excitement of maybe something that you can do better or different.

[00:12:11] Bamboo with from a regeneration perspective, it's pretty fascinating. Even after you cut down bamboo, bamboo can regrow from its roots. You know, so of course everything.

[00:12:30] The power of renewal, the ability to start over after setbacks is extremely evident with bamboo as you cut it down and it grows back. And if you've ever faltered in life and you have I know I have where we stumble but we're not done.

[00:12:52] Our roots haven't been destroyed. You know, if you know who you are, if you know your purpose, if you know truly what your nor star is and what you stand for.

[00:13:06] You will with that regenerative mindset be able to come back and often times stronger. You know, one other thing that I liked was that bamboo grows in clumps and I thought this was really cool.

[00:13:20] Bamboo often grows in clusters and it supports, you know, each each stalk supports each other as they grow toward the sky. And that's it's really fascinating because the strength, you know, especially if you've ever seen bamboo on a, you know, fiercely windy day because it grows together because it grows in clusters.

[00:13:47] But that support is very evident. And I was thinking, you know, this really illustrates the importance of community and collaboration and the highlights that we can we could actually achieve greater heights when we work together.

[00:14:03] So this is one of the reasons that I found into company because I could have certainly been a solopreneur and gone about things on my own. Sometimes I feel like it would be easier that way because you wouldn't have arguments, you wouldn't have these disruptions. If I could just do this on my own.

[00:14:22] But life, I think in its, in the in the best way possible life is better in community life is better with collaboration and most certainly you reach way way more impressive heights when we work together when we grow in clusters.

[00:14:48] So I really was thinking when you incorporate these lessons into our lives, certainly from me to build resilience and remain adaptable to grow continuously much like bamboo.

[00:15:02] This metaphor encourages us to embrace change, to stay grounded and really thrive through life's various seasons. So I hope sticking through you know this 15 minute podcast with me this little talk.

[00:15:21] I hope that you look at life like bamboo. I hope that, you know, there's something here they hit the mark and you say gosh this is what I needed to hear. But as always, I wish you the best and I hope you continue to stay curious. Thank you.