Have you ever had a great idea?  So great that you thought you couldn’t lose?  Or you’d start a business like no one else?  Write a song so unique that everyone wondered why they hadn’t thought of it before?  Painted the 21^st Century equivalent of the Sistine Chapel?  How did it turn out?

Maybe a bit like my gardening project.

It was about 2 years after Jerry and I built our house.  We had built a stone wall out of the tons of rock we’d dug up while planting gardens around the house.  I wanted to soften the wall by planting around part of it.  The part that faced the road and one other side.

It got sun about half the day there.

I bought daffodil bulbs, grape hyacinths, and a bunch of other woodland looking plants that could take mixed sun and shade.  I planned to have something blooming all season long, starting with the daffodils.  It was a great idea.

But, as is true with so much of life, the idea isn’t what’s most valuable.  Ideas as a dime a dozen.  What really counts is the execution.  Because here’s what happened with my lovely garden plan.

1. The trees grew taller, creating much more shade. Several of the plants didn’t make it because they didn’t get enough sun.
2. The tree roots cut off the water supply. Many died because they didn’t have enough moisture.
3. Most of the plants weren’t native to New England. They didn’t do well next to a stone wall under deep trees.  And they really didn’t do well when subjected to the harsh north winds in the winter.

Little by little, most of the plants died.  Weeds took over.  And those that didn’t die never bloomed.  It was a mess.

The idea to plant around the stone wall wasn’t a bad one.  I just chose the wrong plants.  I didn’t execute the idea well.

Not only that, but I didn’t adjust my strategy when I realized things weren’t going well.  I kept to the plan even when it wasn’t working. As more plants died, I just ignored it.  Until I couldn’t any more.

The mess was too great.  I couldn’t mow near the wall.  I needed to clear it all out.

I started last fall.  I moved the day lilies that hadn’t bloomed in years to a sunnier spot.  I transplanted the daffodils to the sunniest corner, one where there’s more sun before the leaves come out.  At least I was taking some appropriate action.

And just this week I pulled out what little was left.  Moved it somewhere where it should better thrive.  Pulled tons of weeds, even small trees, growing right through the stone wall.

And then I did what I should have done years ago.  I moved some ferns from back in the woods to my “next to the stone wall” garden.  Now I have native plants.  Plants from my own yard, in fact.  They’re used to growing near rocks and fallen trees.  Competing for water.  Being in the shade.  They should do just fine.

When I made my plan, there was a lot I didn’t know.  I hadn’t lived here before.  I didn’t know the trees could block so much more of the sun.  I didn’t know the hazards of planting right next to rocks.  I didn’t know the plants I chose would struggle in the winter winds.

But I could have paid attention when it wasn’t working.  I could have adjusted my plan when the first one didn’t work.  So I’m doing it now.  Planting ferns that have a higher likelihood of survival than what was there before.

There’s so much parallel to other parts of life, isn’t there?  Maybe you don’t garden.  But you can probably still see yourself in something you do.  Like a project at work.  At home.  Making art.  Building a business.

In my volunteer work with SCORE, so many people have told me of their great idea.  Revolutionary.  Never been done before.  Going to change the world.  And I tell them the same thing I told myself this week.  It’s not about the idea.  It’s about the execution.  The day-by-day work that it takes to flesh out the idea, plan and do the work, notice what’s working and what isn’t, and adjust.  Oh – and then repeat as many times as it takes.

How can you apply this to your own life?  It’s not bad to not know.  To find things out after some experimenting.  It happens to everyone.  In the garden.  The kitchen.  The darkroom.  The recording studio.  The conference room.  The family room.

You get to experiment.  Fail.  And try again.  Just keep at it.  Don’t quit. Come at it from a different perspective and try yet again.  Because it’s all in the execution.

What have you worked on where you found that execution was more important than the idea?  Leave a comment.