Seasons of Change Overview
Every time a change occurs in your life, you embark on a transition journey illustrated here with the seasons. Follow the spiral to discover the practical steps you can take to grow through life's inevitable ups and downs.
Imagine that this is an upward moving spiral that continues forever. Think of these Seasons as a metaphor for the phases of any transition journey. These Seasons may, or may not, match the seasons unfolding outside your window.
In any given transition, you move from Summer - a time when all is going well in your life - through Fall, Winter, Spring up to a new level of Summer.
Most of us have grown up believing that to be successful, we must remain in Summer at all times. But then, any change that takes us off our line of success is a threat to be avoided at all costs. There is another way.
Seasons of Change Spiral
If we see change as a naturally occurring event - much like the change of seasons - then we can embrace change as a gift and an invitation to improve and enhance our lives.
To grow through life's inevitable ups and downs, we must move through each season in turn.
Fall - Sensing a Shift in Your Life and Preparing for What's to Come
Early Winter - Retreating, Reflecting and Reconnecting with Your Deep Nature
Winter Solstice - Catching Sparks of Hope in the Darkness
Late Winter - Exploring and Experimenting to Firm Up Your Vision for the Future
Spring - Bursting into Bloom and Putting Your Plan into Action
Summer - Celebrating Your Harvest
Seasons of Change by the Season
Do you have a sense of where you are on the Seasons of Change Spiral? Read the summaries below to gain a sense of the purpose of each Season. The first line of each summary describes how you are likely to feel while in each season.
Deepen your exploration of the seasons that resonate with where you are in the journey.
Fall: Time of Sensing a Shift
You are likely to be in Fall if you are getting news of changes or you are worrying while you wait for news.
While you are in Fall, focus your attention on:
Acknowledging that changes are happening in your life
Getting the support you need to make it through
Creating a safe refuge where you can weather out the storms ahead
At the same time, do what you can to avoid these detours:
Denying the changes that are occurring in your life
Jumping at the first option that shows up
Being a lone ranger and trying to do it all alone
Early Winter: A Time of Retreating and Reflecting
You are likely to be in Early Winter if you are feeling tired, feeling confused about all or part of your life, or trying to avoid social events.
While you are in Early Winter, focus your attention on:
Renewing yourself
Creating quiet time for yourself
Reflecting on your situation, your desires, and your ideal
At the same time, do what you can to avoid these detours:
Staying so busy you can't focus inward
Starting something new so you won't have to feel the chaos within
Forcing yourself to be happy when you aren't
Winter Solstice: Catching Sparks of Hope in the Darkness
You are likely to be experiencing your Winter Solstice if you feel like you are in the dark and/or feeling the imminent birth of an insight.
During your Winter Solstice time, focus your attention on:
Turning things upside down to look at your life from new perspectives
Drawing a line in the sand and saying "enough is enough"
Telling a new story about your past to find new doors to the future
At the same time, do what you can to avoid these detours:
Avoiding your quiet time
Being in a toxic environment
Being wedded to one solution
Late Winter: A Time of Exploring and Experimenting to Firm Up Your Vision for the Future
You are likely to be in Late Winter if you are catching new insights and seeing glimmers of Spring.
While you are in Late Winter, focus your attention on:
Following your insights wherever they take you
Clearing out the old in your space, your to-do list, your relationships, and your mind
Experimenting and exploring to firm up your vision for the future
At the same time, do what you can to avoid these detours:
Ignoring your insights
Doing what you've always done because it's more comfortable than stretching
Charging ahead without a sense of where you are going
Spring: A Time of New Growth
You are likely to be in Spring if you are bursting with energy and struggling with your reentry into your life.
While you are in Spring, focus your attention on:
Trusting your own timing
Birthing what's new in your life
Blossoming fully into the new you
At the same time, do what you can to avoid these detours:
Making no forward movement
Ignoring your inner knowing
Summer: A Time of Celebrating Your Harvest
You are likely to be in Summer if you are feeling clear and confident and your life is abundant.
While you are in Summer, focus your attention on:
Allowing what is new in your life to ripen in its own time
Savoring your success
Celebrating and playing
At the same time, do what you can to avoid these detours:
Raising your definition of success so you never succeed
Backing down from what's going well in your life
Being a worry wart about what's to come in the future
Where to Go Next to Find Your Path Forward
Whether you are in the middle of a life transition or a work-related transition, it's likely you are feeling overwhelmed and confused.
Understanding where you are on your journey, where to direct your energy, and how you are likely to feel in each season can be reassuring. The following resources provide additional information about each season and describe activities you can take part in to facilitate your journey through the seasons.
If you are experiencing changes in your relationships, family, health, home, spiritual life, or finances, check out our Life Transition Tips.
If changes happening in your job, career focus, workplace, business, industry, or profession, check out our Career Change Tips.
If You Are a Change Catalyst
Do you help clients create changes they want and navigate changes they never expected to face? Check out these resources.
If you are ready to flourish as a Change Catalyst — personally, professionally, and financially — visit our sister site, Flourish as a Change Catalyst. There you will find information about our:
Change Catalyst Network,
Transition and clarity training programs,
Mentoring support for Change Catalysts starting a new business or seasoned Change Catalysts reimagining their work or business in light of the times.
About the Seasons of Change
A couple of months after my father's death, as I sat at a stop light, I noticed that a tree that had been bare when he died was suddenly in full blossom. I remembered saying to myself "I hope I blossom again too someday."
As I turned to nature more and more for solace and support, I began to discover new insights about life transitions. I realized that nature changed incrementally every day in response to the changing seasons. I began to wonder what I could learn about navigating times of change by simply watching how animals and plants respond to the change of season.
As I listened to nature's wisdom I began to see my journey as a natural process of healing and growing. Bit by bit, as I made proactive choices about how I wanted to live my life, my life turned from one of grief and sadness to one of joy and engagement.
Five years later, after leaving my corporate job to start my own business, I created the Seasons of Change to support others navigating times of change in their own lives. Over the last few decades I've been honored to share these insights and watch as my clients step into a whole new world as they heal from difficult events and choose to create the life they really want.
Read more about the Seasons of Change in my book of the same title.
If you are a professional working with clients in transition, join more than 300 coaches who have taken the Seasons of Change training to use the model in their work with clients in transition. (The course description is on our sister site: FlourishasaChangeCatalyst.com)