Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.
The Law is as absolute as the law of gravity: What you sow is what you reap. If you sow hard work, you realize the result of your hard work – Success; If you sow laziness, you reap the outcome of your inactivity – failure. Garbage In, Garbage Out. What you give is what you get. You cannot get out of life what you are not willing to put into it. If you want more affection, give affection more affection. If you want to succeed, help others achieve greater results.
For Example: You want to start a business today and become Bill Gates tomorrow; it does not usually happen like that; it involves sowing the habits of persistence, perseverance, consistency, good routine, hard work, grit, and an element of LUCK (Labouring Under Correct Knowledge) and you would eventually reap the reward of fame, success, stardom, and fulfilment.
If you work hard, what is hard would eventually work, but if you take shortcuts, you would be cut short.
The moment you understand the law of cause and effect, sowing and reaping, you just need to do your best always, work hard, and let the universe take care of the rest. If you work hard, what is hard would eventually work, but if you take shortcuts, you would be cut short. It can be extremely hard at times when you give your all, but you don’t get the result, keep pushing, the result would eventually come.
One of the reasons people don’t achieve their dreams is that they desire to change their results without changing their thinking. But that’s never going to work. If you expect to reap corn when you planted nettles, you’re not going to get corn—no matter how much time you spend watering, fertilizing, or cultivating your plants. If you don’t like the crop you are reaping, you need to change the seed you are sowing!
Here are some great insights on the law of causation: What you sow is what you reap.
In his seminal book, As a man Thinketh, James Allen, shares the following insights on the law of sowing and reaping:
An empty bank account is a sign of an ineffective past effort. It is a sign of a missed opportunity. It is a sign of too much procrastination, or laziness. The law of the universe is faultless. It applies equally well to the farmer as to the business person.
The law is equally applied to all things and all people. The law has endured since the creation of the world, and for that long, men have sought to circumvent it, or argue with it, and even to ignore it. In the end, our results demonstrate if we have obeyed its orders, or disobeyed. The law is simple and known to all. The law is “As you sow, so shall you reap.“
Corn planted in the spring will produce corn in the fall, as will wheat, barley, or melons produce after their own kind. You cannot plant one crop and expect to reap another just because you changed your mind during mid-summer.
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance.
Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “How lucky he is!” Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim, “How highly favored he is!” And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, “How chance aids him at every turn!”
They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart.
They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it “luck”; do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it “good fortune”; do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it “chance.”
Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit. – James Allen
In his book Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life, American Christian self-help author. Henry Cloud writes:
Behaviors have consequences. As Paul says, “A man reaps what he sows” (Gal. 6:7). If we study, we will reap good grades. If we go to work, we will get a paycheck. If we exercise, we will be in better health. If we act lovingly toward others, we will have closer relationships.
On the negative side, if we sow idleness, irresponsibility, or out-of-control behavior, we can expect to reap poverty, failure, and the effects of loose living. These are natural consequences of our behavior.
The problem comes when someone interrupts the law of sowing and reaping in another’s life. A person’s drinking or abuse should have consequences for the drinker or the abuser. “Stern discipline awaits anyone who leaves the path” (Prov. 15:10). To rescue people from the natural consequences of their behavior is to render them powerless.
This happens a lot with parents and children. Parents often yell and nag instead of allowing their children to reap the natural consequences of their behavior. Parenting with love and limits, with warmth and consequences, produces confident children who have a sense of control over their lives.
If we study, we will reap good grades. If we go to work, we will get a paycheck. If we exercise, we will be in better health. If we act lovingly toward others, we will have closer relationships.
In the book, Seasons of Life, American Author & Motivational Speaker Jim Rohn shared the following thoughts on the law of cause and effect:
Following the turbulence of winter comes the season of activity and opportunity called springtime. It is the season for entering the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment, and a determined effort. It is not a time to linger, nor to ponder the possibility of failure. Foolish is the one who would allow springtime to pass while dwelling upon the memory of the successful crop of last fall, or the failure to reap last fall in spite of the massive efforts of last spring. It is a natural characteristic of springtime to present itself ever so briefly, or to lull us into inactivity with its bounteous beauty.
Much of the effort and opportunity of springtime rests in the depth and degree of our faith. Life provides no assurances that the planting of seeds will provide the reaping of crops.
- Learn to accept the perpetual existence of negativity, and learn also that negativity always yields to constant human effort coupled with the constantly growing human faith and attitude. It is written that as you sow, so also shall you reap, but only when you combine the efforts of sowing with the mental effort of believing, and the physical effort of constant attention to those things of value.
- The difference between an inadequate apartment and a mansion on the hill is the same as the difference between average effort in the spring and massive effort in the spring. Nature always promises that a cup produces a bushel… that we will receive more than we plant. Knowing this, as all of us do, we forget that to reap many bushels, which is the measure of success, we still must plant many cups. Massive action in the spring of life still is the requirement for massive success in the fall.
- To blame outside influences for the circumstance of winter is a convenient excuse for misplacing responsibility. It is the normal human tendency to place blame for a winter of life on someone else, which is why most humans reap the result of mediocrity that accompanies such behavior.
It is the promise of spring that as we sow, so shall we also reap. Sow lies, reap lies; sow greed, reap poverty; sow inactivity, reap an empty storehouse; choose to procrastinate, and surely an infant giant will grow to become a monster rendering your future action ineffective.
Canadian-American self-development author Brian Tracy in his Book, No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline, noted that:
The highest paid people in America, in every field, work fifty to sixty hours per week. The average self-made millionaire works fifty-nine hours per week. This is equal to five twelve-hour days or six ten-hour days.
Most successful people, at the beginning of their careers, worked six days a week—sometimes seven. Moreover, they worked all the time they were at work. They didn’t waste time. They realized that in order to reap a great harvest later in their career, they had to sow a lot of seeds in the springtime of their career.
They realized that in order to reap a great harvest later in their career, they had to sow a lot of seeds in the springtime of their career.
Leadership Author John C. Maxwell, noted in his book, Good leaders ask great Questions:
To people who haven’t understood the seasons and who neglected to plan in winter, plant in spring, and perspire in summer, autumn brings regret. Just as watching trees lose their leaves can bring some people feelings of loss, some people realize only when it’s too late that they should have made hay while the sun shone. However, to successful people who have made the most of each season, autumn is a time of reaping. It is the time when they receive the products of their labor. It brings feelings of accomplishment. There is no better season of life.
Your ultimate goal as a leader should be to work hard enough and strategically enough that you have more than enough to give and share with others
Life can be tough with its twists and turns but you have to keep pushing, sowing the right seeds in order to reap your intended fruits.
You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds. – Dag Hammarskjöld
All the Best in your quest to get better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.
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