Growth & Seasons
Recently, I have been having many conversations around viewing life in seasons. If you are new to this concept, it is essentially that throughout life we go through various seasons. These seasons can be distinguished by anything from a life event, where we are located, what goals we are chasing or the challenges we are facing at that point in time.
The ability to view life in seasons, has a number of benefits.
Reduces pressure and stress
Harnesses a growth mindset
Fosters clarity & focus
Increases self kindness
Reducing Pressure & Stress
By understanding that your life is made up of seasons, it relieves you of the pressure of needing to achieve all your life goals at the same time. Many of my clients come to me feeling stressed and burnt out because they feel the need to be chasing every one of their dreams and goals at once. Don’t get me wrong, I believe you will achieve all those goals and I will be cheering you on and supporting you to do so. But it doesn’t mean they all have to be achieved in this season.
Harnesses a Growth Mindset
As Dr Carol Dweck discusses in her book “Mindset” if you are able to place yourself and others in a growth mindset you have a higher ability to bounce back after setbacks, grow and ultimately achieve your version of success. I believe viewing life in seasons helps you tap into a growth mindset. It is less about defining success as achieving everything right now, aka a fixed mindset, than instead celebrating the growth you achieve in each season and acknowledging that you are constantly moving forward through different seasons. By understanding the nature of seasons you can also understand that at any point in time, nothing is written in stone and you can constantly learn, grow and adapt.
Fosters clarity and focus
Often my clients are completely overwhelmed by all they feel they need to do and achieve. This overwhelm swamps them and actually hinders them from making any progress at all. In taking a season-based view you are better able to gain clarity and perspective on what is important to you now and what you need to do to achieve it. This clarity then allows you to be laser focused on chasing your season’s goal and making decisions and actions towards that.
Increases Self Kindness
Personally, I love viewing life in seasons because it gives you the ability to be kinder to yourself. Prior to taking this viewpoint I would often feel overwhelmed by the need to accomplish all my goals and a sense of disappointment when the list wasn’t completely ticked off. Yes I was kicking goals, but I wasn’t kicking ALL of them and I couldn’t see a way that I could. By shifting my mindset to acknowledging what my current season is, I am able to celebrate what I have been able to accomplish in that season and rest assured that I will kick all my goals throughout the various seasons to come.
I was inspired by a recent talk by Diana Nguyen on sharing your story with your audience. So I have used a personal story below to highlight the benefits of viewing life in seasons.
I have had a number of seasons in my life, that would mirror seasons that most people have been through - university, corporate world, having a family, etc. The season of “having a family” for me started in 2013. Unfortunately, this season was a long one. Over 6 years, I faced huge challenges, highs and lows riding the IVF and infertility bandwagon but was ultimately blessed with a beautiful daughter and son.
During this time, viewing my life in seasons gave me the perspective and clarity to understand that I was chasing one big juicy goal (to have a family) and for this season my career aspirations and business goals would need to take a back seat. This perspective allowed me to make a lot of hard decisions like quitting my job, saving money for treatments, etc. and it provided me with the laser focus to be able to show up every day to that season and show my tenacity and strength to achieving my goal. However, the most important benefit was it allowed me to be kinder to myself. On days where I felt unaccomplished looking at the career goals my peers were kicking, I was able to say to myself that it was ok, and that those weren’t the goals I was chasing this season. Plus, I had the knowledge that whilst I wasn’t chasing career and business goals during that time, I would in the future and that I didn’t need to worry about it.
My family is still my reason for being and my number one priority, but I’ve now moved on to a new season. I have more space to up the ambition again, to chase those career and business goals but I also know I’m raising a small family at the same time so I need to be kind and respectful to that.
Each season contributes to the richness of your life, so celebrate each and every one even when those seasons are tough ones. The tough seasons are the ones that garner your strength and teach you crucial lessons that can used to make the next season great.
