What Are You Killing Off Without Question?
Aug 10, 2026Many people will spread weed killer across their lawns to rid them of dandelions. But during my burnout recovery, while working with a holistic doctor, I learned something that changed my perspective completely.
Dandelions (those “weeds”) were essential in helping heal my liver and support my heart. A natural remedy, growing right in our own backyards, often destroyed…simply because “that’s what we do.”
That stuck with me. So I started asking questions: Where did this belief come from? Why do we destroy a healing plant without thinking twice?
What I uncovered was unsettling: the maker of Round-Up is owned by the same parent company (Bayer) that also distributes heart disease medications. Let that land. The same system profits from both the damage and the supposed repair. We also spend our precious time and money tending to lawns to shape them in unnatural ways because others tells us it should look a certain type.
Now, I’m not anti-medicine. There’s absolutely a place for it. I'm not going to heal a broken bone with flowers. But this realization pushed me to see how much we blindly accept. It made me start asking deeper questions, not just about my health, but about my choices, habits, and behavioral patterns. Especially the ones I never stopped to examine.
- Why do I do things this way?
- Who told me this was the right way?
- Does this still support the life I want...or am I just following old behavioral patterns?
This isn’t just about dandelions, or health, or systems out there. This is about you.
- What are you still doing, following, or tolerating in your life, at work or at home, because someone once told you it was the right way?
- What routines, relationships, roles, or beliefs are you carrying simply because they’ve always been there?
Just like dandelions were labeled a nuisance without questioning their potential, many of us keep patterns alive that once made sense, but now quietly drain our energy and joy. And because we’ve never paused to ask where they came from, we don’t realize we have the power to choose differently.
Maybe it’s the way you approach your mornings. Maybe it’s how you show up in meetings, or the roles you feel obligated to play. Maybe it’s the belief that you have to earn rest. Here’s your invitation to get curious and explore.
Ask yourself:
- What in my life feels misaligned with where I want to go?
- Where did this expectation or habit originate?
- What might become possible if I allowed myself to do things differently?
Sustainable change doesn’t start with a giant overhaul. It starts with one powerful question:
Does this still serve me?
You're not stuck. You're just standing in a system you haven't questioned yet.
To get you started, below are a list of journal prompts you can use to make space for what could be...not just what has been. Not into personal development right now? That's okay too, don't push it. These prompts can be modified for work too, for example: "what work routines do we follow simply because we always have?"
