In a few short weeks we’ll turn over a calendar year, which is traditionally a time to look back at the past year and dream about the year to come.
Before we get to those musings I’d like to ask you a few questions about right now.
Where are you in your life?
What season are you in?
Maybe you are:
- in a crisis situation, just trying to get by
- going through a period of transition and personal growth falling in love
- focused on your finances
- going through a grieving process
- in a good groove with your life
- in the doldrums
- starting fresh in a new place
- in the middle of a career exploration
- handling a job search
- a new parent or an empty nester
- recovering and rebuilding from something that knocked you down
- managing the needs of your family and your household
Take a second and consider the season that you’re currently in.
Can you find it? If you were to put a name to it, what would you call it? What are the elements of this season and how does it affect your life?
And possibly most importantly, where have you been resisting this particular season?
You might be thinking:
‘This shouldn’t be taking so long.’
‘I wish I were somewhere else.’
‘I should be farther along.’
‘This can’t be happening right now.’
‘I should be able to accomplish more.’
These thoughts are akin to walking out on a freezing cold day in shorts and a t-shirt thinking, ‘It should be summer already.’ If you ignored the truth of the season and tried to go swimming in a frozen lake you’d be in for some pain.
Consider how different this hypothetical scenario would go if you acknowledged that it was winter, bundled up appropriately, and bought some hot chocolate.
By acknowledging the truth of the season that you’re in you’ll be more likely to choose actions that are in harmony with what’s going on.
You might realize that during a busy season at work you won’t have as much time to hang out with your friends, so you can stop stressing about an emptier social calendar.
Or you might notice that you’re going through a season of personal growth that’s pushing you up against your comfort zone. Naming this time as a season of discomfort will make you feel more at peace with what’s going on.
Every season has different requirements- energetically, emotionally, and physically. And each season has different implications for your life. If you’re in a season of health and vitality, then you’ll probably sail through projects faster than if you were in a season of illness.
When you take the time to note where you are you can make decisions that help you manage the particular needs of the season that you’re in. You can realize you’re in a season of burn out and what you need is to take a rest. Or you can realize you’re in a season of debt and what you need is to curb your expenses.
That’s not to say that you can’t change or affect your own personal season- of course you can!
But for right now this is the ‘weather’ that you’re having.
How can you embrace it?
I’d love to hear from you. What season are you in, and are you able to embrace it? What, if any, parts have you been resisting?
Great article, Alison. I am in a season of grieving the loss of my mother (last May), and season of care giving my husband who has been sick pretty much for the past four years since we got married (four times on short term disability). I am managing all needs of our household, and working a job that I’m a poor fit. We also have a two year old black lab that I am working on training and weekly classes. This is fun for me and gives me a little recreation time.
I had to put a new home based business on the back burner this fall because I just don’t have the time and energy to do one more thing. I am trying to embrace it and get our household organized and redecorated so that when I come out of this season, I can hit the ground running. The grieving part has negatively affected my job, even more than usual. I accidently gave a customer back a thousand dollars and was almost fired. The customer returned the money the next day, but they wrote me up twice for ‘inattention to detail” and now my head is on the chopping block if I make one more error. Yes, it is more stress I don’t need right now. P.S. I started the home based business so I could eventually replace the income from my poor-fitting job. The part I have been resisting is the job, which just makes me angry and resentful about the time away from home and all the multi-tasking duties which involve highly important activities involving people’s money. I am not very ready for Christmas and have to realize that the decorating and cookie baking may not get done this year.
Luann- I liked what you wrote at the end about letting go of some holiday to-dos. I think a lot of times we try to push through or add things to our plate when our ‘season’ is really dictating that the opposite is in order. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. It’s always lovely to hear from you!