John N. Mitchell Quotes

You can't pick cherries with your back to the tree.

A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

You're a wise person if you can easily direct your attention to what ever needs it.

You know, when people look at a tree, they look at the leaves; they don't look at the spaces between the leaves. They're focused on the tree. I think there's an awareness of spaces or it wouldn't look like a tree to them.

One that would have the fruit must climb the tree.

The vinery is not made with blessings, but with hoes and spades.

I planted an orchard when I was 13. The impulse came from wanting to grow my own apples. That and the nursery catalog showed an apple tree with a beautiful girl standing under the fruit. Whether the flavor or the picture that did it, I've been hooked since.

Look where you are going because you will inevitably go where you are looking.

You don't always have to look in the distance for what's going on over there, when you actually see what's right in front of you.

Our awareness is the key. It is our awareness more than our work effort that gets the right result right now.

Your life follows your attention. Wherever you look, you end up going.

It takes close attention to see what is happening in front of you. It takes work, pious effort, to see what you are looking at.

We are defined by how we place our attention.

Don't judge yourself; simply return your attention to what's in front of you right now.

No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.

A lot of my work is like picking potatoes; you have to get into the rhythm of it. It is different than patience. It is not thinking. It is working with the rhythm.

If you don't have time for the small things, you won't have time for the big things

The most difficult thing is what is thought to be the simplest; to really see the things which are before your eyes.

The quality of one's life depends on the quality of attention.

Slow down, totally. You have to slow down and pay attention to everything.

At any moment in time, our reality is based on whatever we focus on.

In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.

Learn to become still, and take your attention away from what you don't want

Where focus goes, energy flows.