All Work, Works
Why nothing in life is ever truly wasted
When a whale reaches the end of its life, its body does not disappear 🌊
It sinks to the ocean floor.
As it descends and settles, different forms of sea life begin to feed on it. Larger scavengers, including some shark species, may take what they can earlier on. Over time, crabs, worms, microorganisms and other deep-sea organisms break it down. In parts of the ocean where food is scarce, that single whale becomes nourishment for years.
Marine scientists call this a whale fall.
One life ending supports countless others. What looks like loss becomes provision.
Nothing is wasted 🌱
As it descends and settles, different forms of sea life begin to feed on it. Larger scavengers, including some shark species, may take what they can earlier on. Over time, crabs, worms, microorganisms and other deep-sea organisms break it down. In parts of the ocean where food is scarce, that single whale becomes nourishment for years.
Marine scientists call this a whale fall.
One life ending supports countless others. What looks like loss becomes provision.
Nothing is wasted 🌱
The Circle of Life 🔄
This pattern shows up everywhere in nature.
In The Lion King, Mufasa explains the Circle of Life to Simba 🦁
Lions eat the antelope.
When lions die, they return to the ground.
The ground feeds the grass 🌱
The antelope eat the grass.
Life feeds life.
Nothing exists on its own. Nothing ends without contributing to something else. What looks final in one moment becomes foundational in another.
It is hard not to see ourselves in that pattern.
Nothing Is Wasted 🌿
As the year comes to an end, reflection feels unavoidable. Maybe you are doing the same.
You look back at what you hoped would happen and what didn’t.
Maybe you did not reach the fitness goal you set 💪
Maybe the promotion you worked towards never came 📈
Maybe you were planning to buy a property and it never moved forward 🏠
It is easy to label those moments as wasted time.
But just like in nature, effort is rarely lost. Even when the outcome changes, the process still shapes you. Experience still counts.
What feels like an ending is often part of a longer sequence you cannot see yet.
Closer to Home 👀
I remember when my wife and I first wanted to buy a property.
We had the deposit. We felt ready. Everything looked lined up.
Then we were told we could not move forward because we did not have enough company records at the time. It felt like a major blow. We were disappointed and had to put the whole plan on hold.
So we paused and went back to the drawing board 📝 We had to rethink the plan.
During that time, our thinking changed.
When we started looking again, we were no longer searching for a flat. We began looking for a house. And not just anywhere, but in Greater London rather than Kent.
What initially felt like a setback ended up working in our favour. We were able to benefit from the rise in London house prices in a way we would not have if the original plan had gone ahead.
At the time, it did not feel like progress. Looking back, it clearly was.
Nothing was wasted.
Experience Still Works ✨
Not everything works the way we want. That does not mean it worked against us.
Sometimes it worked on us.
It refined how we think 🧠
It adjusted our direction 🧭
It prepared us for the next season 🌿
In nature, breakdown is not destruction. It is transformation.
What ends feeds what follows.
As You Look Ahead ✨
As you close out this year and start thinking about the next one, hold onto this.
Whatever did not happen is not wasted.
Whatever delayed you is not wasted.
Whatever disappointed you is not wasted.
All work, works.
Either it is working for you now, or it is working on you for what follows.
And in time, just like in nature, you will see how even the ending fed the future 🌱
