Trees Fall When the Wind is Stronger than The Roots

By Laurel Elders

Last week, a powerful storm ripped through my area. The first trip to the grocery store after the storm was riveting. There were some massive trees down. Yet other massive trees were unharmed or just lost a few branches.

It looked as if God had taken a 50 foot tree, plucked it like a weed – roots and all- and then placed it on its side. The roots and surrounding ground all plopped up together.

Why did some trees remain strong while others were ripped out? Well, when the wind becomes stronger than the roots, trees fall.

I realized it is the same when we follow a calling, have children, start a new business or get married. Any big commitment really. If the wind that is bound to come is stronger than the roots of a commitment, the storm can win.

This storm happened at the crossroads of a new realization. I had just finished a podcast where one of my favorite human biologists and bio-hacker Gary Brecka was interviewing Dean Graziosi. Dean was sharing about what helped him remain committed to his life purpose through thick and thin. He said, “The reason for doing something has to be bigger than your reason not to.”

This month my colleague Tabitha and I are running a business success mastermind for coaches. Why? Because all too often really amazing coaches struggle with business launching because the strength of the wind exceeds the strength of their roots, and we are deeply excited to help them shift this. Why are we excited? Because we’ve been there.

Dean went on to credit a consultant for inviting him to do a layered process. Dean was asked WHY seven times. After listening to this I realized, after the seventh “why”, you will locate your deepest roots. You will locate your strongest strength.

Now when we integrate this process with our teaching on declarations (a coaching process where you place a stake in the ground after discovering your truth) you land upon the solid of … your non-negotiable. Our deepest truth is our deepest “why.” This is the strength that endures the storm.

​Let’s bring this to life with a coaching exercise so that you can apply this to your life. I’ll share my example first so you can see it in action. Then, grab some paper, it will be your turn. 

1. Laurel, why did you start the Institute for Integrative Intelligence? I was giving the opportunity to take the coach training program private in 2016 and I decided to go for it because I wanted it to reach its potential.
2. Why was taking it private to reach its potential so important? I wanted this profound new concept we’d created to not just live on, but to also evolve. I had followed my heart to get it into the college, so it made sense to be a part of its new life.
3. Why was being a part of its new life so valuable? I kept a promise to myself to follow what was calling me, even when it was not logical. I wanted to discover what was possible if I trusted myself at a higher level.
4. Why was trusting yourself at a higher level so key? I grew up never trusting myself, feeling like an outcast and I carried so much self-doubt. Trusting that my life had a higher calling and seeing if I could trust that calling felt deeply important to me.
5. Why was trusting your higher calling so deeply important to you? I promised myself once I became a mom to never settle and to not exit my life without meeting my potential. Having kids made me turn my life around. I was headed nowhere in life until my first son was born.
6. Why was meeting your potential so important to you? Growing up I was socially awkward and had a very low self-image. I became so curious what was on the other side of that. I became fascinated with not just my potential, but human potential.
7. Why was human potential so important to you? As soon I hit middle school, I recognized that humanity wasn’t doing so well. Gangs, violence, trashing the planet and oceans, racism, sex trafficking, the porn industry, greed being valued over people’s lives in our “health care” systems, corporations ignoring what people actually wanted and creating products that were killing people or causing cancer. No other species or animal on the planet was creating this level of disasters with the gift of life. However, I realized humanity is at a false summit and none of this needs to be this way. Taxes, politics, systemic evils – it was all just made up. None of this needed to be this way at all. So, if we are capable of creating almost anything, why are we settling for harmful outcomes? We can equally create miraculous outcomes. It is not a lack of intelligence; it is a lack of vision.
8. (Added layer) Considering all of this, how does this inform your non-negotiable? I will not exit this planet without contributing to a greater good and without contributing the highest aspects of myself so that future generations have an option to thrive.​

I’m going to be completely transparent. Starting and running the Institute is one of the biggest challenges I’ve committed to stewarding in my life. Being a small business fish in the middle of corporate American sharks is not easy (they call it Shark Tank for a reason). If I didn’t have my bottom line, none of our amazing team, our amazing programs would be here today.
Your turn.
What commitment is top priority in your life right now? Is it parenting, partnering, business, a career? Whatever it is I invite you to self-discover: 

• What is your seven-layer deepest roots why?
• What does this layer teach you about your life’s bottom line – your non-negotiable? 

I’d love to hear how this process impacted you. Please comment, share, or reach out. I hope you self-discovery your purpose at a whole new level. Why? Because the storms will continue to storm. How we respond is an inside job.
 
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Up next read … The Path of Integration, Featuring Michael Tucker