Every gardener I know, myself included, has said it. It's just been too hot or we haven't had

enough rain. But here's the truth. Blaming the weather might actually be holding you back.

What if the weather isn't always the culprit? And even if it is, are we just going to sit back

and let it win? I've actually seen this reaction in a completely different world back when I worked in the car business,

and the parallel is too good not to share.

In case you haven't heard my backstory, I worked at a Ford dealership for 10 years.

For most of those years, I was the business development manager, and among many of our roles,

we would take phone calls and internet inquiries

from people looking to purchase vehicles. Our job was to answer questions and ultimately to make an

appointment for the prospect to come in and talk to a sales associate in person. When we weren't

fielding incoming inquiries, we were making outgoing phone calls, sending emails,

and sending postcards to pass customers and prospects. Often, though, during the fall, and especially

during the economic downturn of 2008, we found that the phones stopped ringing as frequently

and the internet inquiries were starting to slow down.

The easiest thing to say during those times when our appointment board looked sparse was,

well, it's just that time of year right now and people aren't thinking about buying cars.

Or look over there. The parking lot at the unemployment office next door is full. People can't afford to buy a car right now. Or gas is $4 a gallon and nobody is buying trucks and SUVs, which was the bread and butter of the dealership that I worked for. In other words, when our job was literally to develop new business, the easy reflex was to blame factors outside of our control.

Now, if you're wondering why I'm talking about the car business on a gardening podcast, I'm getting

there. I just want to paint the picture because sometimes I think our knee-jerk reaction

to outside influences is very normal. At the core, it assuages our guilt of not being as successful as we

want to be. But ultimately, did fixating on factors beyond our control actually drive any new vehicle

sales? Even if those factors were real? No. In fact, it did the opposite. It gave us excuses. We were more prone

...