2-3-4 Friday 19 Jul 2024

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

1 thought

There are the times in your life when you feel a season has ended, and another is becoming.

No, that wasn’t a typo. It is becoming I wrote, rather than the oft-mentioned ‘beginning’.

Because seasons aren’t just an external environmental shift, but within us, we must also be ready for the season.

In other words, just as autumn fades into winter, there are times when we do need to embody the season of our lives.

For example, the times when you find yourself not succeeding as much as you’d like to at a job, and facing resistance at every turn.

For those who are unfamiliar with the concept of seasons of one’s life, it simply means the different phases of life one goes through. One may be a new mother, holding a new job, or find themselves newly retired.

The issue here is that many of us do recognise the change in the season, often marked by the primary responsibility we have in our lives.

We take it in our stride, and adjust our behaviours accordingly. But when I talk about embodying the season, I speak more from the point of presenting a coherent and congruent whole.

Look at new dads, and you see something profound. There are those who do the dad things, and those who are dads.

What’s the difference?

If you’re beginning to spot a seasonal shift in your life, beyond what can be seen, take some time to pause and consider these 3 elements.

1. Presence - how are you showing up? How are you being seen by others?
2. Authority - how are you using the power that’s vested implicitly in you?
3. Trust - do people trust you?

1 talk

How are you embodying your current season in life?

1 tip

Since qualifying as a social worker in September 2019, I’ve struggled with being a social worker.

And for 2.5 years, I struggled with the feeling of being persistently rejected by the sector, sending as many as 304 applications, going for 41 interviews, and getting rejected by every single one of them.

Then came a video from Shane Melaugh, the founder of Thrive Themes, a Wordpress theme plugin software. This helps with the design of the pages on your websites.

For 11 years, Shane has been scaling Thrive Themes. Along the way, he made enough money to retire, and started tackling the problem of human thriving.

Or why humans seemed to be in a ‘zoo’, where there were many freedoms - the chance to buy your own home, your own food; but we were all still looking for further freedoms.

Like the freedom not to have to work, or not to have to check into the workplace everyday, or the freedom to do the things we want, and not need to.

He did this through online courses on productivity (which I bought thousands of dollars of), and live online workshops.

But in that video, he talked about how it felt like a chapter was closing, and how he didn’t wish to be defined as the ‘productivity guru’ anymore.

He didn’t know what was next, but he knew it might not be more of this.

As soon as he said that, he suddenly named what I was feeling for a long time.

That a chapter in my life as a social service professional was closing, and that a new one was beginning.

In your life, you might begin to notice some of that. Spot for example:

1. How you begin to feel like going to work is a chore
   1. Yes, going to work is often a chore, and we still do it. But the distinction here is recognising that work is beginning to weigh on you and you’re no longer looking forward to it anymore. That’s a deep sign that you’re no longer engaged with the work.
2. You feel like you’re not growing in any new way from your work
3. You don’t feel like you’re keen to put in more effort

Those might be some useful signs.

Here’s two questions from me:

1. How are you navigating your current season?
2. Might there be signs that a new season is coming?

John

Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love

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