On creating seasonal goals instead of yearly ones
On creating seasonal goals instead of yearly ones
Making intentions and goals manageable, adaptable, and achievable
Happy Wednesday dear ones! In this week’s letter, you’ll learn about…
✍️ How working with the seasons gives you room adaptability, and space for change while setting your goals
🧭 My WeatherVane: Weekly mumbles & (personal) updates
📖Seasonal goals and story time
If you’ve read some of my letters, so know I’ve been working with my Seasonal Binder: Spring Editon.
Here, I set intentions and goals on a seasonal base instead of a year. The reason for this is that a lot can happen in a year and I may change my mind about a goal - or several goals - and I like to have the freedom to change and adapt. What I’ve learned is that while working on a goal or intending to go a specific route, as I’m taking action I see that there’s tweaking needed and sometimes a complete change or a particular goal or aspect of that goal. The goal or intention needs to adapt. That’s is for me flowing with goals.
Other times external things happen that I don’t immediately have direct control over. In those cases, I might need to steer the course of the goal(s) and/or intention(s) or even put them on hold for a while.
Similarly, long-term goals can feel like we’re energetically trapping the ‘how’ on our dreams, desires, and life purpose. It’s like telling the Universe “This is what I want and how I want it’. If I know anything about manifestation is that fixating on the how does not give any wiggle room to the universe and also controlling the Universe is a no-no.
So instead, I prefer to have a clear vision of the life I want to create but rather than creating major long-term goals on how to get there, I see what I can do now - with short-term goals - taking into consideration how I want to feel and what I think is the best way to get there.
Change is the only constant
Only one thing in nature and thus in life is a constant: Change.
How we think we’ll get somewhere may change. The road to our destination may change or even the final destination may change.
Things can happen along the way that may change our entire way of moving forward.
🔈Storytime
I had a dream for years where I wanted to be creative and of service to like-minded people. Also, I wanted the freedom and be able to be location-independent when it came to work.
In 2019 I decided I wanted to start my own business but I had to still work on the side, you know for paying the bills and stuff. As I was in the midst of looking for a part-time job and investigating how I’d start a business the Pandemic hit. Everything changed with an external and very much impactful long-term event that no one could have anticipated.
And just like that there weren’t many job offers. Moreover, people were losing their jobs. My partner and I found ourselves in a predicament, to say the least. I kept looking for a job, and that became my main focus. The intentions of starting a business needed to go to the back burner.
I sure was glad when I landed a job in a customer service department at a large power company. However, due to the Pandemic, all pieces of training were done from home, and because this was a last-minute ordeal on their part it didn’t go well at all. I had little understanding of the systems and how actually actual power companies work, let alone this one. Even more, the demands, goals, and targets from the company, from the manager and coaches to their employees in this department were outrageous, to the point of exploitation for a very small salary and a lot went against my integrity.
So I found myself, with a laptop, a headphones, people yelling over the phone, wanting answers, wanting help while I didn’t understand how exactly I could solve their problems and at the same time needing to make shady sales. At the end of the day, an email was sent to the entire team letting everyone know who was doing ‘good work’ putting them in a green spreadsheet and those who weren’t meeting their standards and expectations were added to the red spreadsheet.
The walls of my house were coming at me, and two months in I had my first nervous breakdown. I never had one before and had no idea what it was and how to handle it. I didn’t understand what was happening to me!
This wasn't my first customer service job and I was good at service but here I didn’t feel of service at all. Around month 5 I had my second nervous breakdown and I broke completely. Unable to go back to work in the short term, I got sent home from my GP with possible burn-out symptoms that needed to be evaluated by a psychologist.
While waiting for this - yes the Pandemic put anything and everything on long waiting lists! - I went to the hospital to get a cyst in my breast drained, to be diagnosed in a course of two weeks with Breast Cancer. The burn-out wasn’t a priority anymore.
And once again, everything changed in a split second.
What does this all mean?
You may be wondering …
Well, I’m telling you this because back then, in 2019 while making my long-term goals I had no idea what was coming - none of us did, and everything changed not once, but twice for me in a way I’d never imagined possible.
My road map got cut off due to the pandemic.
My vehicle ⇒ my body broke down with the fear of not coming out of it.
The destination changed due to the pandemic, and the breast cancer, and even today I’m still not able to use that vehicle 100%, so the destination needed to change.
Sometimes things happen that are 100% out of our control and trying to have every goal and dream/purpose set in stone is a recipe for disaster.
We need to be able to adapt, to let go of what no longer is available, and find new ways to get back into - or maybe another - journey.
So, instead of making long-term goals, create a clear vision of where you want to be, and who you want to become.
Next, see what things you can do today and short-term letting yourself and the universe some wiggle room …
“for this or something better...”
Be actionable for the things you want in life and for yourself.
Be able to adapt to whatever may come your way.
And always have faith that whatever is meant for you will come one way or another.
Some things and events in life are simply horrible but there is always a silver lining. We just need to learn to see it.
It is not about what happens to us but rather how we deal with those events.
Cancer took many things from me and I still can find myself sad, triggered, angry, frustrated, scared, anxious - and the list goes on and on - but cancer also showed me things I wasn’t seeing before and taught me a lot of hard but valuable lessons.
Would I like to have them learned in another more gentle way? Hell, yes!
But it happened the way it happened and I needed to adapt in order to survive.
Seasonal goals
Maybe you took the wrong road and you just found out while on the road…
What if you change your mind? What if you want to go somewhere else instead?
What if you take the next exit and go your way in another - maybe a bit longer - road with a beautiful scenery route instead of hitting an endless traffic jam in the middle of an ugly highway?
Just think like going on a road trip, you need to create your checklist! ⇒ Prepare yourself and have a good navigation system (aka goals + planning system).
Seasonal goals give you enough room to …
Check if the goal you’re taking is the right one for you right now
Created adaptability to change the goal if needed; You learn to pivot
Creates adaptability for unexpected events
Gives you space to check in with your body in a holistic manner
Motivates you to take inspired action
Gives enough room for the Universe to guide you on a better goal if needed
And all of this while maintaining your mission and life purpose.
Feel free to share your reflections about intentions and goals in the comments:
A Housekeeping note: I know I mentioned in last week’s letter I’d give some journaling prompts for cyclical living but I decided not to. The reason is that I’m making some adjustments and changes around in the way I write the weekly letters and its content.
🧭 WeatherVane’s Flow: Weekly mumbles & (personal) updates
This past week was also a good example of how planning may not flow at all, even if they’re linked to short-term goals.
Under the energy of the waxing moon phase, this past week was all about planning, learning, and taking action. However, last Wednesday I woke up to the sad news my grandmother had passed away. She reached a beautiful age and died peacefully but unexpectedly.
This news grabbed me on so many levels and in so many ways, that even though I understood and had peace with it in my mind, I was grieving a lot. This meant I couldn’t feel any motivation, let alone energy, to do the things I had planned for.
Even though I’m still grieving, the shock has subsided and little by little I’m able to take on a few tasks. Cleaning a bit around the house, doing some laundry, and taking my morning walks have made me come back to myself.
Also, I’ve been making some changes in my Seasonal Binder, which I’ll implement for the Summer Season. This means that I also need to start working on the Seasonal Binder: Summer Edition and I have one moon cycle and a half to have it ready 😱
📩 Upcoming Letter
✍️ Cyclical Living on paper
🧭 My WeatherVane: Weekly mumbles & (personal) updates
🌬️ Sending you magic & healing your way,
-Vane