Translator: Hannah Lawrence Reviewer: Hélène Vernet
On my fortieth birthday,
I was given a lemon tree as a birthday present,
a Tahiti lime to be precise.
So, I don't know if you know what a Tahiti lime is,
but it's the citrus fruit used in Ti' punch and mojitos.
Now you get it. It's always clearer with an example.
This citrus tree was a bit like the trigger of a new passion for me.
Some years later, at the end of 2012,
my professional life kind of swerved off course,
and a problem presented itself
that made me realize the path I was on was leading me to exhaustion.
I took a look at myself. I was a business coach.
I had started my business four years prior.
So I had many professional and family burdens.
This was the consequence of four years running my own company.
Still, I was asking myself, "Why am I so exhausted?"
So I rested, I slowed down.
I had the good fortune to work with a friend who is a coach,
and with him I looked at this notion of energy.
He talked about being in the flow.
The flow in professional life,
is an internal state where, at a given time,
I will be at maximum capacity
to meet as many challenges as possible.
Although I thought I was in the flow -
I had a career that I liked, the job of developing managers -
I found out that one dimension was missing.
To explain what the flow is, let's use an image such as skiing.
I'm getting ready to ski on a black run that is very technical, very difficult.
The snow is pretty good, a bit powdery, a bit packed.
There's no one on the run, the sun is shining brightly.
I'm at peak performance, at maximum capacity,
and off I go.
And then I feel the increasing enjoyment, the surge of adrenaline, the energy.
There's no thoughts in my mind,
just the technicality, the pleasure, and the present moment.
That's being in the flow.
So although I considered myself in the flow,
I found out that I was missing one ingredient.
And it was getting back to the land, to using gestures,
and to the fact that, in my professional life,
I needed to shape, to create,
to create something aesthetically beautiful.
So I said to myself,
"Ah... I know what I need! I need to grow citrus fruits."
Meanwhile, over the four previous years,
I had gone from one citrus tree to three or four.
I had a mandarin tree and a clementine tree.
Since then, it's become a passion.
Today, I have around 70 citrus trees, I'm still a business coach.
I have 70 citrus trees and they take up space.
My wife thinks they take up a lot of space,
but it's like any passion, passion always takes up space!
So I learned to grow them since I wasn't a citrus tree grower at the beginning.
But what's really interesting is that, actually,
while I was learning how to look after the citrus trees,
the citrus trees were teaching me how to look after my own life.
And so, this is what I'd like to share with you tonight:
the six big lessons of wisdom from citrus cultivation.
So, let's look at the six gestures of citrus cultivation.
The first is essential and it's the potting soil.
When we grow citrus trees in pots -
I grow them in pots made of Toulouse's sandstone -
then the potting soil is important.
It's where the plant will grow its roots, where it will get its energy and water.
It's what's going to enable the tree, through its root system, to grow.
So, the potting soil is essential.
it should be able to be supportive.
Sometimes it may be suffocating if it is too heavy.
Citrus trees need a soil that drains fairly well.
And sometimes, it can be totally harmful and poisonous.
So, the potting soil, what does it mean for us?
Well, the potting soil is where we are.
It's my family, my immediate surroundings, my company.
It's where I've chosen to live my life.
Now there is no good or bad potting soil.
No, it's simply more or less suitable.
For example, for ten years
I worked in an American company as a young engineer,
and then I became a manager, and it's true I produced beautiful fruit.
As a manager, I was fortunate to have a nice career.
But at the age of 30, I saw that this potting soil
wasn't going to be the best for furthering my career.
I realized that, to continue to bear fruit,
it was not that one that I needed to maintain.
So for each of us, the potting soil needs to be felt, to be tested,
and we should ask ourselves, "Does this potting soil work for me?
Does it still work for me? How can I enrich it?"
That's the first gesture.
The second is a gesture that, in citrus cultivation,
we repeat regularly:
watering, fertilizing, adding water, adding compost.
It's a gesture that we do regularly
without needing to know whether we're going to harvest tomorrow.
I'm just in the gesture of feeding the plant.
So, for us, what could that refer to?
Certainly, to nutrition,
but I wanted to shed light on two matters that I think are important.
The first is relationships.
As human beings, we are beings of connection,
and our relationships feed us.
And it's important to both be nourished by them
and to nourish them with all the people with whom we are.
As a citrus-human, it's important to ask:
"Do I take the time to do that,
to meet people, spend time with them, to talk?"
And the other element, in terms of fertilization,
is everything that revolves around knowledge and learning.
It's important to ask ourselves,
"In my current and future life, how can I regularly nourish myself
so that I don't become rigid and dry, so that I don't calcify?'
The third gesture is significant, and it's pruning.
Citrus trees, particularly lemon trees, have an enormous amount of energy.
Look at a lemon, it's magnificent and very colorful.
So when the lemon tree grows, it grows a lot, so it needs to be pruned.
Pruning takes place usually in spring and summer.
And when I prune, I actually cut branches that could have produced fruit,
but with the aim of concentrating the plant's energy
so that it can produce better fruit,
and also with the aim of giving it a shape.
So for us, it is like asking ourselves,
"What can I prune in my life?"
Today, we're in a society of excess:
too many emails, too many activities, too much work, too many burdens.
And I see people in business who are close to burnout
if not completely exhausted.
Some know it, others don't.
So pruning regularly in our life is essential.
It is quitting and be willing to say "I'm not doing that anymore."
So yes, it could have been nice fruit.
We can do so much in life, one isn't enough,
but at some point, we must be willing to say no.
So, I can prune because I think there are too many branches
but also because I want to give them a shape.
Citrus trees should not be pruned too early.
I mean, I'll let it spread a little, then I'll prune.
Pruning, it's saying no,
but it's also learning how to reduce our burden in our lives
and how to focus our energy.
The next gesture is repotting.
In fact, when a citrus tree grows, it pushes against the walls of the pot.
So, the roots get intermingled and intertwined,
and the tree ends up absorbing less from fertilizers.
And it starts to stagnate.
So, it's time to think about changing its pot.
Repotting is moving from one pot to another.
You need to choose the pot: too small, and there's no point,
too big, and you risk losing the plant,
that is, it will take a lot of time for it to adapt.
Repotting, for us, it's all the changes.
It's all those factors that cause me
to move home, change city, job or company.
When I repot, it's really important that I give myself some time,
so that I can put down new roots.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have enough roots to produce beautiful fruit.
So in business, I see people who,
when they change company, are working flat out.
Because they're in a new company, they need to prove themselves.
But what they forget is that when I repot a citrus tree,
first it grows its roots before bearing fruit.
The next gesture is paradoxical, because it's a non-gesture.
It means I've already done a lot.
I've chosen the potting soil, I've pruned, I've fed,
and then at some point, I must stop doing anything.
I need to stop because the tree must grow.
I have done a lot, now I must agree not to act any longer.
Beware that it doesn't mean that I'm doing nothing.
Rather it means that I'm here, I observe, I contemplate.
Incidentally, I can rest.
And if I see scale insects, I can treat it.
If I see it needs water, I can add some.
That's neither doing nothing, nor abandoning.
And for us, this concept isn't easy.
In our society, we do a lot all the time.
Our society almost believes,
especially in companies, that if I want it, I can do it.
It's just a matter of means or willpower.
If I want it, I need to invest more means, more staff.
It's a bit like saying:
"Let's pull the flower to prompt the lemon's developpement."
Well, you know what? It doesn't make the fruit grow.
So at one point, it's being here, present, agreeing to observe,
agreeing to let Nature take its course.
So then "If I want it, I can do it,"
well, it does not work, an equation is missing
which is external energy, Nature, and especially time.
There are so many people in a hurry today.
Nevertheless, to grow lemons, you need time.
The next gestiure is a truly happy, joyful moment,
a moment of grace: it is harvest time.
I can tell you that when you pick fruit this colorful,
it's a real pleasure.
Especially because they're normally harvested in winter,
which is great because in winter, they give us color and vitamins.
Citrus are full of vitamins.
And I rejoice since if I harvest, it's because I did what was needed.
Nature also played its part. Really, the tree did all of that.
But I'm delighted because that didn't happen all on its own.
There was a helping hand, especially when the trees are in pots.
It is being delighted when I have only one clementine.
I tell you when you only have one, and you pick it,
you eat it segment by segment, and you really savor it.
It is being delighted when I have 3 kilos, I'm giving them out all over the place,
and I make jam and fruit wine,
so much so that, in the end, I'm sick of citrus fruit!
It's also learning to be delighted when there are too many.
And, as for us?
Well, it's all about "Do I know how to be happy with what I have in life,
with the small pleasures, the small joys,
all that which I experience each day that can make sense and delight me?"
And sometimes, we're not delighted.
Sometimes, we're happy for others, but they're not.
It's surprising.
It's also about being happy and recognizing
that I can harvest today because I did lots of things before.
It's also being happy because I'm alive and I can harvest,
whereas some people are no longer there to harvest.
So harvesting should remain a joyful moment, a pleasurable moment.
So, finally, what do citrus trees tell us in terms of wisdom?
They tell us, in fact, two things.
They say that citrus trees are very simple.
They need soil, sun, water, fertilizer.
With that, they can do wonderful things,
beautiful fruit, beautiful colors, beautiful shapes, beautiful flavours.
Well, it's the same with us.
With very few things, simple things, we can do beautiful things.
And yes, mostly, you do beautiful things.
But what does it also mean?
It also means that I have to learn to return to basic gestures,
to return to being conscious, and sometimes to being repetitive,
to return to the fact that one day at a time,
I'm going to do what is necessary to hopefully have a harvest.
I see a lot of people who, actually,
could judge their days, their weeks, their time,
on "What will I harvest?"
They could measure their activities, their life,
in the light of what they harvest.
So I propose you start measuring your lives in light of what you sow,
in light of all the small gestures that you do
that, little by little, are going to make things grow,
a bit like when someone starts a business and everything has been done -
the market research, the products, everything is there -
and then, it just doesn't work.
Well, it's about saying,
"I'm happy to have sowed, because one day, I'm going to harvest."
Finally, in conclusion,
I'd like to go back to the notion of "pépin"
because it can be seen from different angles.
A "pépin," as meaning "glitch," can be tragic for a human being.
And how many people do I see around me
in my work environment,
who are waiting for the big "pépin"- the accident, the death, the disease -
to start changing things, changing their schedule,
changing the time they come back home,
changing the balance of their life, changing their diet!
And I'd like to tell you, don't wait for this glitch
because honestly, when it comes, it's not great.
Perhaps I had the wisdom to hit a snag
and think that behind this irritating yet not too serious snag,
there was something to learn, and I learned.
That "pépin," I can also see it differently.
It also means "seed", a seed that I can sow and that contains a promise,
the promise of a tomorrow a little bit different,
with a life maybe more harmonious, happier,
or lighter if you prefer.
I can see that I don't need to wait for the big "pépin"
to say that in the "pépin," there are things that I can sow, I can plant.
Lastly, let me ask you,
"Tomorrow morning, what small seed or little "pépin" are you going to plant
to make your life happier?"
Thank you.
(Applause)