Do you love the summer sunshine or do you prefer the cold of winter?
Personally, I love when summer starts to give way slowly to Autumn.
At this time of year I love cosying up in front of the fire when the evenings are cooler and unearthing my slow cooker from its summer hibernation. Most of all I love to watch the leaves change from green to all the glorious yellows, oranges and reds. Today I spotted the first blackberry and picked a few early ones to put in the freezer to pop into an apple crumble over the winter.
To me Autumn feels like a period of slowing down and a time to think and reflect on the year so far. After a busy summer it is easy to lose track of where I am in my life, so I’ve been doing a stock-take to clarify what areas I’ve been neglecting and what areas of my life I am not fully satisfied with.
Here’s the process I used, and I invite you to do the same if like me you like to reflect on your life alongside the changing seasons.
Clarify
I wanted to clarify my current situation and understand where I am in all the different aspects of my life, all the aspects that I need to lead a balanced and fulfilling life. I considered my career, personal growth, family, finances, creativity, health and fitness, free time and connection to my community – all the things that are important to me.
I drew a circle, divided it into these categories and then drew a line where I felt my level of satisfaction currently is for each area (the centre of the circle is zero satisfaction). I worked through each in turn – not overthinking it but simply going with my gut instinct response.
From this visualisation of how I am currently feeling about the different aspects of my life I can decide where I want to focus my attention to raise my satisfaction with that area. The bigger the gap between the line I have drawn, and the outer edge of the circle are the areas where I am least satisfied – for me this is currently my creativity, my family and my connection with my community. These areas are the obvious places to start to change but I can pick any one area to focus on – there is no right or wrong way of doing this.
When trying to change something about your life you should focus on what is right for you.
Writing it down and making it visual is really powerful and I encourage you to give it a go. As well as highlighting the less satisfying areas of your life it can be hugely rewarding to see the areas where you are feeling satisfied written in black and white.
Slow down, reflect and enjoy all the wonderful colours unfolding this Autumn.
This clarify process is part of our ‘Making Change Happen’ programme. If you would like to know more you can view the Step 1 ‘Clarify’ for free. Just click on the button below and scroll down our homepage.
Best wishes
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Behaviour Works aim is simple. To help make change happen in your personal, family or working life. Every week we help people across the world with their own change journey with our ‘Making Change Happen’ online training. Check us out at Behaviour Works.
Main Autumn Leaves Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash
Woman Jumping Photo by Konstantin Planinski on Unsplash
Bramble Photo by Eleanor
