Seasonality: What You Can Learn From the Changing Seasons
September is my favourite time of year!
For me, September feels like an uplifting ZING! Whereas the calendar new year in January is often tinged with melancholy for me, a bit of a loneliness hangover after the intense socializing of the Christmas season. I am Team September. The slow and easy days of summer build to the exciting tempo of September. Routines are reinstated, weather cools, and we build towards the high holidays of the late autumn and early winter.
You may love the crisp, cool, calm of January, and therefore resent the above characterization of that season as vaguely melancholy. You may be from another faith tradition where high holidays happen in the spring and summer, causing you to cherish those seasons and the memories associated with them. Or you may not be Canadian and may live in a place where there are not distinct seasons and this metaphor falls flat.
Allowing for all of these variances, we still all experience seasons in life.
What is a season? A discrete period of time that ushers in specific characteristics, environments and requirements.
What do seasons have in common? They are always changing and we cannot control them.
What do seasons represent? Recurrence and forward momentum; familiarity and fleetingness. It’s complicated, right?
So what can we learn from seasons?
I. ACCEPTANCE
You know I am all about setting your own course, overcoming boundaries and toppling unsupportive opposition.
But sometimes we find ourselves in an uncomfortable season that is right where we are meant to be.
We may be experiencing the discomfort and growth that comes with learning something new.
We may have a LOT on our plate because we’ve made a decision to stretch ourselves to achieve a goal.
We may feel overwhelmed because our roles at work or at home require more of ourselves than they have in the past – more patience, more poise, more flexibility, more knowledge, more physical or intellectual effort.
Even positive situations and change can feel HARD. And accepting that can help us move through those seasons with a bit more ease.
An example:
At work, my boss wants me to go to NYC for a conference. I am excited, but also stressed because I am not familiar with this city, I don’t want to leave my loved ones, and I am nervous about navigating airports after three years sans flights (thank you, pandemic).
If I RESIST the trip in my mind – entertaining the thoughts about why I do not like the trip and imagining a scenario where I do not have to go – then I amplify my own negative thoughts about the task, drag my heels on the preparations and ultimately make the experience more uncomfortable than it has to be.
If I ACCEPT the opportunity, identify other goals I could achieve on the trip, plan thoroughly to offset nerves about navigating the Big Apple, and cultivate some excitement about the opportunity, then it will likely be more fun and successful for me.
This is a specific moment in time. Accepting its requirements will allow me to see its benefits more clearly and craft a plan that allows the experience to work best for me.
To provide a bluntly on-theme example, I am a Canadian. Every year, we face long, cold winters that can be miserable. Railing against the winter and being pissed off about the ice and snow will not change the season in the slightest. It will only change you into a miserable person.
Accepting that winter is here for many months, and there are steps I can take (Blankets! Sleds! Hot drinks! Snowshoeing! Candles! A very warm coat! etc.) that will increase my comfort and enjoyment of the season. After all, the only moment we are guaranteed is RIGHT FRICKIN’ NOW. So don’t waste it waiting for the weather to change.
Photo credit: Pexels / Designecologist
II. PREPARATION
I touched on this in my NYC trip example above, but accepting seasons allows us to PREPARE for them.
Preparation is key. We see this in the ancient fables about grasshoppers who party all summer long, to find themselves starving and shelter-less in the cold and cruel winter.
The comforts of our contemporary society have lessened the stakes around preparation for many of us in affluent countries. However, failing to educate yourself on what is needed to weather a new season will bring unnecessary stress, hardship and failure.
How do you prepare?
Gathering facts – understanding what is involved in your new season – literal or metaphorical – where will you spend your time, what supplies are required, who you will be with and what you need to achieve.
An Example: You’re starting at a new school, so you gather key information by talking to the school, reading their website and talking to other students so you know how to select and register for your courses, what supplies you need, who your teachers and fellow students will be, and what are the key dates involved in the process (start date, test dates, holiday breaks, start of semester, etc.)
Planning ahead – don’t leave preparations to the last minute. Some of the knowledge, supplies and skills you will need for this new season will take time to develop and acquire. Planning ahead bring peace of mind, whereas waiting till the last minute leads to stress. In some cases, delaying action to the last minute means your first choice option is no longer available, and you'll have to go with whatever alternatives are left.
Sticking with our school example: If your class has textbooks you need to order three weeks in advance, ensure your order is in on time or your lack of preparation will be obvious.
Practice / Recon – Physically going through the motions of new task and situations is great. I've mentioned this in previous articles, but when you start a new job (or ideally before you accept a new job offer), practice your commute! Going through the motions in a realistic way will familiarize you with the time needed to complete a task, helping ensure punctuality. Reconnaissance will also show you what you can do to make your routine easier or more enjoyable.
Reflection – When something does not go to plan (or when something goes fantastically) rather than coasting on resulting emotions, take some time to reflect on what led to the outcome. If you find you arrive on time on day you planned your clothing and packed your lunch the night before, then repeat the preparations that contributed to your success. If you find you're always late on nights when you stay up late watching Netflix... you know what to do.
III. BENCHMARK
Seasons are unique, because they represent forward momentum in time, but also evoke nostalgia for past iterations of the season.
Seasons form a natural benchmark, a means of setting a comparison by evoking - where was I last September? how was I doing two winters ago?
Comparison with others is a fool's game. But having benchmarks for our own progress can be a great way of determining if we are moving toward our goals or if we are stalled.
This is not a cause for self-recrimination. If we are, season-after-season, not moving closer to our goals, maybe it's because we are setting ourselves the wrong destination. Often looking back can show progress that has happened incrementally, day-by-day, so you haven't noticed how far you've come. When you look back on past seasons, you may find you've grown in fantastic ways.
IV. CELEBRATION
Seasons mark the turning of the page, the closing of one chapter -- and the opening of another.
In these moments of change, take time to honour what you achieved in the past season. Take time to celebrate your growth. And take time to greet the new season.
Create traditions for yourself and those you love. Maybe it's an autumn fair, a winter snow fort building competition, a spring party or a summer croquet tournament. Have a movie you watch every January, or a bonfire ritual you complete every July. Find ways to celebrate what each season offers. Be here. Right now. Rain or shine or snow or wind. And while you're here, tell someone you love that you love them and you are grateful to do another season of life with them.
