<\/p>\n
We’re living in the age of perpetual dissatisfaction. Your college friend just posted about their “life-changing” move to Bali. Your LinkedIn<\/a> feed is a never-ending parade of people who “took the leap” and “never looked back.” Your cousin’s startup just got funded. Your ex just got promoted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And you? You’re standing in your yard, staring at literally everyone else’s grass.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s the reading between the lines though: that grass over there? It’s mostly filter, fertilizer, and fiction.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The job that looks perfect from LinkedIn? It comes with a boss who micromanages breathing patterns. The “digital nomad lifestyle”? It’s glamorous until you’re fighting with customer service in a language you don’t speak because your laptop died and took your livelihood with it. The relationship that seems effortless? They’re just better at hiding the arguments about whose turn it is to unload the dishwasher.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And you still go…the grass is greener…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Time to stop playing victim. The problem isn’t your job, your city, your relationship, or your circumstances. The problem is you’ve been a terrible gardener.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Irrespective of your mailing address, imagine you getting a telegram from your self twenty years into the future. What would the content on it say?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Highly unlikely that it would be saying ” Dude, you should’ve compared yourself to more people on social media.” I am betting that it wouldn’t be saying “Man, I wish we’d jumped ship more often.” It is safe to guess what it would be saying- it would say something like: “That thing you had? It was pretty good. Wish you’d noticed while you were living it.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The grass isn’t greener on the other side. It’s greener where you point the damn hose.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n No sermon here please. So, certainly I am not telling you to stop dreaming, stop wanting more, stop aspiring to better things.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some grass\u00a0is<\/em><\/span>\u00a0dying. Some jobs\u00a0are<\/em><\/span>\u00a0toxic. Some relationships\u00a0are<\/em><\/span>\u00a0over. Some cities\u00a0are<\/em><\/span>\u00a0wrong for you. I’m not suggesting you water dead grass\u2014I’m suggesting you learn the difference between grass that needs water and grass that needs burial.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The question isn’t “Should I stay or should I go?” The question is “Have I actually tried?”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have you watered this grass? Have you fertilized it? Have you given it morning sunlight and afternoon shade? Have you protected it from pests and pulled the weeds?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or have you just stood here, looking over the fence, wondering why everyone else’s yard is better?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The moment you start watering, you stop comparing. The moment you stop comparing, you start growing.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And the moment you start growing, you look back and realize the grass was always good enough\u2014you were just too busy staring at fences to notice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now put down your phone, pick up your watering can, and tend to what you’ve got.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The grass is waiting. And it’s thirstier than you think.<\/p>\n The question here is a no-brainer. When did we all stop tending our own lawns?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Professionally, personally, emotionally \u2014 we\u2019re always peeking over the fence.<\/p>\n The neighbour has a better brand, a shinier title, a more \u201ccreative\u201d team, a dog that poses better on Instagram. (Dogs, by the way, never compare lawns. They\u00a0own<\/em><\/span>\u00a0every patch.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s be honest \u2014 we\u2019ve outsourced joy to geography<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n We tell ourselves that happiness, opportunity, or meaning lives elsewhere. Another company. Another relationship. Another city. Another start-up. <\/p>\n When you show up every day for your own patch \u2014 even with a leaky hose, muddy shoes, and patchy sunshine \u2014 something remarkable happens. Grass doesn\u2019t just grow;\u00a0gratitude<\/em><\/span>\u00a0grows.<\/p>\n Ideas root deeper. Work feels less like a pilgrimage for applause and more like play. And slowly, your patch stands out \u2014 not because it\u2019s smoother, but because it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, forget the neighbor’s lawn. Your grass is waiting for a drink<\/em><\/span>. Euphemism NOT intended!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We don\u2019t look for inspiration anymore.<\/em> We look for irrigation<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s not about blind positivity or settling for less. It\u2019s about a strategic shift from coveting to cultivating<\/em><\/span>. Perhaps it’s time to trade your binoculars for a watering can. Stop staring at other people\u2019s gardens. Every minute spent in envy is a minute not spent watering your own plot. Redirect that energy. Inward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The universe doesn\u2019t hand out green lawns. It hands out seeds, soil, and a whole lot of weather. The greenness\u2014the joy, the success, the peace\u2014is entirely dependent on the gardener. On you.<\/p>\n Stop looking over the fence. Your own patch of earth is right beneath your feet, desperate for a drink. Go on. Water it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We humans practice selective amnesia. It’s a craft that we have mastered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lest we forget; Everyone wants greener grass. Almost no one wants to drag the hose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everyone wants the bloom. Few are willing to stand through the muddy season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everyone wants the \u201covernight success\u201d but conveniently skips the fact that\u00a0night<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>is usually 5,000 days long.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The \u201cother side\u201d is a mirage built on maintenance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s an inspiring example- none other than The Beatles<\/em><\/span>. Before the world screamed, \u201cBeatlemania!<\/em><\/span>\u201d, they were four broke lads sweating it out in Hamburg\u2019s smoky nightclubs, playing 7-hour sets to half-drunk sailors. <\/p>\n The concerts, the Grammys, the hysteria \u2014 just the spring bloom.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We live in a time where people Photoshop even their productivity. <\/p>\n Water, water, everywhere….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Water your curiosity<\/em><\/span> \u2014 it grows wisdom.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Water your gratitude<\/em><\/span> \u2014 it grows joy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Water your craft<\/em> <\/span>\u2014 it grows credibility.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Water your relationships<\/em><\/span> \u2014 they grow roots.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everything else is weather<\/em><\/span>. Period. Because,\u00a0 e<\/em>very dream dies of dehydration before it dies of doubt.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you hate the process of watering, you\u2019ll never stick with it. Find a way to love the act of tending to your own life. The satisfaction of getting better, the peace of routine, the quiet pride of building something that is authentically yours. Find the joy in the gardening itself<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So. That pristine grass you\u2019re coveting? It\u2019s probably AstroTurf<\/em><\/span>. And even if it\u2019s real, you\u2019re not seeing the back-breaking labor, the fertilizer (metaphorical and otherwise), and the sheer number of dead patches they\u2019ve carefully cropped out of the frame.<\/p>\n The ancient, overused, and profoundly misunderstood proverb needs a 21st-century upgrade. The grass isn\u2019t greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it. <\/em>And it is <\/span>hose <\/em>good as it gets!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Common sense has put in its papers. We can call it the Great Resignation! We’re living in the age of perpetual dissatisfaction. Your college friend just posted about their “life-changing” move to Bali. Your LinkedIn feed is a never-ending parade of people who “took the leap” and “never looked back.” Your cousin’s startup … Continue reading “The grass is not always greener on the other side but where we water it…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2366,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362\/revisions\/2366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Being-An-Employee-Of-Our-Own-Myth.jpg\")
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\nBut the truth is brutally simple:\u00a0greener doesn\u2019t mean better; it means watered.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\nThose nights\u00a0were<\/em><\/span>\u00a0the watering.<\/p>\n
\nEverything\u2019s curated, cropped, filtered, optimized for engagement. Here’s the much overlooked curveball though- the deeper you water your roots, the less you need to\u00a0market<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>your leaves. Because authenticity is the only fertilizer that works long-term.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n