What Season Are You In?

The question that can change every other decision

For years, I thought consistency meant doing the same things every day.

Wake up early.

Exercise.

Meditate.

Journal.

Work hard.

Keep going.

Stay disciplined.

There is enormous value in consistency.

Habits matter.

Routines matter.

Discipline matters.

But recently, I’ve been wondering whether consistency has another meaning.

Perhaps consistency isn’t about repeating the same behaviours.

Perhaps it’s about remaining faithful to your values while allowing your behaviours to evolve.

Because life has seasons.

And every season asks something different of us.

The problem is that many of us are still responding to today’s season with yesterday’s strategies.

We Keep Using Yesterday’s Strategies

When I was recovering from back surgery, I realised something uncomfortable.

I kept trying to prove that I was still the person I had always been.

The disciplined one.

The productive one.

The strong one.

Even though my body was asking something completely different of me.

It wasn’t asking me to prove anything.

It was asking me to heal.

But healing did not mean abandoning consistency.

In many ways, consistency is what has carried me through this season.

Showing up for my biokinetic rehabilitation.

Repeating the same small exercises.

Walking when I was able to walk.

Resting when my body needed rest.

Listening, adjusting and beginning again the next day.

Was it exciting?

No.

Was it necessary?

Absolutely.

The value of consistency had not changed.

Its form had.

In one season, consistency may look like pushing towards a goal.

In another, it may look like patiently repeating the quiet, unglamorous actions that help you recover.

The behaviour evolves.

The value remains.

That is what I began to understand: remaining faithful to who you are does not always mean continuing to do what you have always done.

Sometimes it means allowing the same value to take a different shape.

And that’s when I realised that many of us aren’t struggling because we don’t know what to do.

We’re struggling because we’re answering the wrong question.

Instead of asking:

“What does this season require?”

We keep asking:

“How do I keep doing what has always worked?”

Every Season Has Different Rules

There are seasons for building.

Seasons for recovering.

Seasons for leading from the front.

Seasons for stepping back and developing others.

Seasons for clarity.

Seasons for experimentation.

Seasons for speaking.

Seasons for listening.

Wisdom isn’t treating every season the same.

Wisdom is recognising when the season has changed.

The difficulty is that change often feels like failure.

I was recently coaching a client who had just returned to work after having her first baby.

She couldn’t understand why everything felt harder.

Why she wasn’t producing at the same pace.

Why she no longer had the same capacity she had before maternity leave.

She kept comparing herself to the woman she had been twelve months earlier.

The problem wasn’t that she had become less capable.

The problem was that she was measuring herself against the expectations of a season that no longer existed.

This wasn’t a season for proving.

It was a season for integrating.

Learning.

Rebuilding confidence.

Finding a new rhythm that could hold both her leadership and her family.

The question wasn’t:

“Why can’t I do what I used to do?”

It was:

“What does excellence look like in this season?”

Those are very different questions.

If you’re someone who has always been the one who carries everyone else, asking for help can feel like weakness.

If you’ve always been decisive, slowing down can feel like losing your edge.

If you’ve built your success on saying yes, boundaries can feel selfish.

But perhaps these aren’t signs that you’re becoming less of yourself.

Perhaps they’re signs that you’re becoming the version of yourself this season requires.

The Cost of Living in the Wrong Season

Imagine wearing a heavy winter coat in the middle of summer.

There is nothing wrong with the coat.

It is simply wrong for the season.

That’s what many of us do emotionally.

We keep wearing the same coping mechanisms.

The same habits.

The same beliefs.

The same identities.

Even though the environment around us has changed.

We wonder why everything feels heavier than it used to.

Perhaps it’s because we’re carrying what this season no longer requires.

I see this with newly promoted leaders as well.

They often believe the way to succeed is to keep doing everything that made them successful before.

They continue solving every problem.

Answering every question.

Making every decision.

Working the longest hours.

Yet the season has changed.

Their role is no longer to be the best individual contributor.

Their role is to build the capability of others.

Success now looks different.

The difficulty is that our identity rarely changes as quickly as our circumstances do.

A Question I Now Ask Myself

I’ve started asking myself one question before making important decisions.

Not:

“What’s the most productive thing I can do?”

Not:

“What would the old version of me have done?”

Simply:

“What is this season asking of me?”

Sometimes the answer is courage.

Sometimes it’s patience.

Sometimes it’s action.

Sometimes it’s rest.

Sometimes it’s speaking up.

Sometimes it’s saying no.

Sometimes it’s pushing harder.

Sometimes it’s letting go.

The answer changes.

That’s the point.

The Wisdom of Adaptation

One of the greatest misconceptions about self-leadership is that it is about becoming increasingly fixed.

I think the opposite is true.

The best leaders aren’t simply the ones with the strongest routines.

They’re the ones who know when those routines need to evolve.

They aren’t attached to being consistent for consistency’s sake.

They’re committed to responding wisely to what life is asking now.

That is discernment.

And discernment requires something many high performers find difficult:

Letting go of the certainty that yesterday’s answers will solve today’s questions.

Beth Kempton captures this rhythm beautifully in Wabi Sabi:

“The seasons are a regular reminder that we don’t need to push all the time. Every push needs a pull. Every expansion needs a contraction. Every effort needs a rest. There are times for creating and times for seeking inspiration. Times for noise and times for silence. Times to focus and times to dream. Ebb and flow. Wax and wane.”

That is the wisdom we’ve largely forgotten.

We celebrate expansion.

We admire productivity.

We reward momentum.

But nature has never worked that way.

Winter isn’t failing to be spring.

Recovery isn’t failing to be ambition.

Rest isn’t failing to be productive.

It is simply the right response for the season you’re in.

The Better Question

Maybe we’ve spent too long asking:

“How do I become better?”

Maybe we’ve spent too long relying on the strengths that have always worked.

Maybe we’ve spent too long trying to solve today’s challenges with yesterday’s identity.

Perhaps the better question is much simpler:

What season am I in?

Because once you answer that honestly, so many other decisions become clearer.

You’ll know whether this is a season to build or to restore.

To speak or to listen.

To lead from the front or to create space for others.

To push.

Or to pause.

There is no prize for living in the wrong season simply because it is the one you feel most comfortable in.

This season won’t last forever.

No season does.

But your willingness to recognise it may change everything.

Perhaps self-leadership isn’t about constantly becoming more.

Perhaps it is about becoming more aligned:

With your values.

With your capacity.

With what this season is asking of you.

Every season carries its own wisdom.

The question is whether we are willing to become quiet enough to hear it.

Here’s to this season,

Warm wishes,

Lori