Plant Your Tulips

 

Every spring, I wait for my tulips to bloom. It’s something I look forward to every single year, the moment they push through the ground and bring color back after a long winter. And without fail, I say the same thing to myself… “I need to plant more tulips.”

The funny thing is, I’ve actually bought the bulbs before. More than once. And yet, I never plant them. Because planting tulips doesn’t happen in the spring when the excitement is there, it happens in the fall, six months before you ever see a single bloom.

And fall? Fall is full. The boys’ sports schedules take over, work gets busy with the end-of-year push, and most days feel like I’m just trying to keep up. Taking time to do something that won’t pay off for months feels… unnecessary in the moment. So, I put it off. And then spring comes, the tulips bloom, and I wish I had made the time.

The other day, it really hit me, this isn’t just about tulips. This is how so many of us approach our lives. We want change, we want growth, we want something more… but if it’s not immediate, it’s hard to stay motivated.

We start working out, but after a few weeks, when the results don’t match our expectations, we stop. We try to eat healthier, but it feels hard and inconvenient, and the payoff isn’t quick enough. We talk about saving money for something meaningful, but spending now feels easier. We stay in situations we’ve outgrown because the process of change takes time, and that feels overwhelming.

So, we don’t plant the bulbs.

But here’s what I’ve learned about tulips and about life. When you plant a tulip bulb in the fall, it doesn’t just sit there doing nothing. Beneath the surface, where you can’t see it, it’s doing the most important work. It’s storing energy, growing roots, and preparing itself for the moment it finally blooms. That quiet, unseen season is what makes the beauty possible later.

Your goals work the same way. The workouts that feel like they aren’t doing anything yet, the healthy choices that don’t show immediate results, the small steps that seem insignificant, this is your underground season. This is where the growth is happening, even if you can’t see it yet.

We’ve been conditioned to expect quick results, but the most meaningful changes in our lives don’t work that way. They require patience, consistency, and the willingness to keep going even when there’s no immediate reward.

So today, I want you to think about this…what is your tulip? What is something you keep saying you want, but you haven’t committed to because it takes time?

Maybe this is your reminder that the journey isn’t about instant gratification. It’s about trusting the process, even when it’s quiet. It’s about doing the work today that your future self will thank you for later.

Because six months from now, you’ll either be wishing you had planted it… or you’ll be standing in full bloom.