When I lived in California and now in New Jersey, I’m amazed by how much lawn work goes on at people’s houses — the constant maintenance and manicuring, the loud lawn mowers, edgers, and leaf blowers. There is nothing wrong with having a nice lawn, but I sense there is a deeper issue going on. It’s almost an obsession. Pretending everything is OK on the outside, when inside the weeds are growing. Grow your garden, not your lawn.

It’s expected, I guess, when you live in the suburbs, that you will keep your house and lawn looking neat and tidy. And that’s fine. But it’s constant. It’s every day.

If landscaping is what turns you on, more power to you. But I suspect that everyone is keeping up appearances for each other when what they really need to do is work on the inside.

The Weeds

Are you bored? Are you feeling dissatisfied or exhausted? Are you overworked? Are you underemployed? I spent years working to the brink of exhaustion for someone else’s company. I made great career strives and it was lucrative. But I was working on someone else’s projects. I let the other areas of my life slip. You would never know it on the outside. I had my designer purse and my Chanel lipstick. Everything looked fine to the naked eye, and even in the mirror. But my inner garden was suffocating.

It’s important to have goals and to strive to achieve them. But you have to be sure they are making you happy. Do you feel good? Are you doing it for yourself?

Don’t settle for an OK life or one that was designed by someone else. Make your life beautiful. Cultivate it on the inside.

The Neighbors

Don’t worry so much about what other people think. Stay in your own business. Grow your inner garden. Add edge to your own life. Weed out your bad and destructive habits. Plant roots. Fertilize your ideas, your relationships, your business. Make your home your sanctuary, not a green patch of suburb.

Yes, we all want our houses to look pretty, but it’s what’s happening on the inside that counts. Don’t just cut your lawn because everyone else is. Don’t pretend everything is OK on the outside, only to feel the weeds and brambles growing within.

Make time for yourself. Grown your garden, not your lawn. And let the outside world be.