There’s a tension between reinvesting in what we already have and investing in possible next-steps. You can think of this as ‘explore versus exploit,’ but I like to think in terms of planting seeds versus tending gardens.

We have a finite amount of time on Earth, and limited energy and resources to expend while here. If we splurge on the present we might not have what we need in the future, and the same is true the other way around.

I would argue it’s worth the effort to strike a balance between these (seemingly competing) interests, though, because what we’re focusing on, today, might benefit from knowledge and experience gleaned from next-step explorations. And if we reconnoiter potential future paths right now, while we still have stable ground under our feet, we’re capable of (safely) venturing further afield and taking bolder risks.

At any given moment, there are tasks that demand our attention if we want to maintain what we have right now: work, health, relationships, and everything else.

We’re also capable of trying and learning new things, and experimenting with novel projects, ways of living, careers paths, and the people we spend time with.

That latter collection of attempts and explorations may or may not lead to anything: they’re seeds we scatter across the soil, maybe watering them here and there, but mostly just trying stuff and seeing if anything grows.

We can scatter those sorts of seeds while still maintaining a more developed, refined garden, though, and we might even learn something from the seed-sewing process (or resulting sprouts) that we then can bring back to our existing greenery, benefitting in the present by experimenting for the future.

This can also be valuable in the other direction, as especially in times of tumult (though arguably always) it’s worth considering what the next season might bring, and what might differ, perhaps dramatically, from this season’s norms and predictable conditions.

We don’t know who we’ll be tomorrow, how our needs and wants and priorities will change, and how the world around us will evolve.

Learning to strike this kind of balance, then, is a means of reinforcing what we already have while also investing in potential next-steps, so that if and when we want or need or are forced to change, part of the work is already done—the initial seeds already planted.

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