How to Act Without Why? – The Old Man and the Sapling

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In a small, quiet village lived an old man who didn’t own much — just a simple hut and a small patch of unused land beside it. Every morning at sunri**se, long before others woke up, he would fill a bucket with water and walk over to a tiny sapling planted in that patch. He would gently pour water around it, loosen the soil, and whisper encouraging words. To outsiders, it looked like an ordinary plant — nothing special. But he tended it with patience and care.
One day, a young villager passed by and saw him watering the sapling. Curious, he asked, “Sir, this plant is so small and unlikely to grow into something big. Why do you put so much effort into it every single day?”
The old man smiled but didn’t stop what he was doing. “I don’t always act because of why,” he replied. “Some things don’t need a reason. They just need someone to care.”
The young man didn’t fully understand back then, but the words stayed with him.
Weeks turned into months, and the small sapling steadily grew taller and stronger. Passersby began using it as shade during hot afternoons. Children played near it, enjoying its cool comfort. Though not yet a full-grown tree, it had already become useful to the community. The young villager walked by again one day and noticed how people gathered around the plant. He finally understood what the old man meant — that sometimes simple actions, done with care and without constantly searching for a why, can become meaningful to many people over time.
This lesson wasn’t just about a plant. It reminded him of his own life as a writer on blogging platforms like Hive, Steemit, or others. For the longest time, he wrote articles only thinking, “How much money will this get me?” Every headline, every story, driven by earning potential first, usefulness second. When the results didn’t meet his expectations, he lost motivation and interest.
Seeing the old man’s sapling change the way he thought. The old man never asked why he was watering the plant — he just did it because it felt right. And that’s exactly how blogging should be too: focus first on creating content that genuinely helps people — posts that educate, inspire, solve problems, or bring new understanding to someone’s life — rather than only thinking about money or traffic.
When your articles become helpful to readers, very naturally they attract engagement, loyalty, and yes, even earning — but that comes as a result, not the reason. Just like the young sapling, if you act with purpose first, the outcome grows on its own.
The young villager went home that day, inspired. He reopened his blog editor and began writing with a different mindset: Not “Why?” … but “Who will this help?”
And in that shift, his writing finally began to grow — just like the sapling under the old man’s care.