One area of interest and study in the last couple of decades for me is how the brain works. In fact, I consider some of it fascinating. Studying how the brain works can assist you in understanding people and how they think and act. You begin to understand the why of people’s behavior.
In some respects, your brain works like a garden. If I want to harvest beans, I plant beans. If I want tomatoes, I plant tomato seeds. I do not expect to get tomatoes from my beans planted. A garden produces what is planted in the garden.
The brain works likewise. You’ve likely heard throughout your life “Garbage in, garbage out” that is if you put only garbage in your brain, you’ll get garbage out. Your attitude, actions, and speech will be the same as what you take in. This not only applies to what a person puts into his/her brain, but what he/she is exposed to from other people around her – including the leaders in her life.
If, as a leader or influencer you are constantly spewing negativity, then negativity is being planted in the brain of every person you interact with. If you are always pouring out praise and positive statements, you are planting positive seeds in each person’s brain. What happens next is also like a garden.
The second garden likeness of the brain is what happens to the planted seed. When I plant a bean, I do not expect to harvest one bean, but many. When I plant a single tomato seed, I expect to harvest multiple tomatoes from the plant that seed produces. I plant about 20 tomato seeds or seedlings each spring. From these 20 seeds, my wife and I enjoy several weeks of good, garden-fresh, ripe tomatoes. In addition, we can enough tomatoes to last until the next year’s harvest. Not only tomatoes, but we also can, tomato juice, pasta and pizza sauce, and salsa. From those 20 seeds, we reap a harvest multiplied by a hundred-fold or more.
For every negative seed planted in the brain, a similar crop is multiplied. God causes the growth in a garden. Imagination causes growth in the brain. For every negative thought planted by a leader or influencer, the imagination multiplies that into a garden of negativity. The only harvest from a tomato plant is tomatoes. The only harvest from negativity planted is negativity.
Likewise, leaders who invest positively, plant positive seeds in the brain which will produce positive results. If you desire positive and efficient productivity from those you lead and influence, do all you can to plant positive seeds.
It does not take long to be around someone to realize what they are planting and what is being planted in their own brain. What will you strive to improve in your planting in the minds of those around you this week?
George Yates is the Church Health Strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, assisting churches and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Learn more at ALSBOM.org/revitalization.
