What the Fall Season and Our Intentions Have in Common - Living a Life of Purpose and Meaning

Fall is my favorite season. How about for you? It is a time of sweaters and scarfs, gathering around fire pits, and gorgeous Pacific Northwest fall days. It is also a time to witness the change of seasons. Observing nature begin to let go, shed what isn’t growing or nurturing, and prepare for the future.

It got me thinking, fall is an excellent opportunity for us to pause and reevaluate our lives. Events in life happen and we can get stuck or feel overwhelmed. We can encounter resistance towards new ways of doing or being, and even become complacent towards achieving our intensions. Researcher and author, Brene Brown, notes living a life full of purpose and meaning isn’t about the plan you create, it is about your ability to get back up and begin again.

How can you get back up and begin again so you can continue to move forward in your life? Brown notes there are three components to beginning again: courage, curiosity, and vulnerability.

Courage. Courage to acknowledge something didn’t work out or recognize if you fell back into old patterns. It also takes courage to be open to letting go of what is no longer helping or serving you (be it your beliefs, thoughts, behaviors, actions, profession, and/or people in your life). While it may have helped in the past, it may be holding you back now.

Curiosity. Curiosity to observe what is and is not working. It takes curiosity to non-judgmentally observe what you are thinking and feeling, and become conscious of the negative messages you are constantly repeating. It also takes curiosity to shift your mindset to treat a situation as an opportunity to grow and learn; instead of coming from a place of fear, perfectionism, or self-doubt, by labeling a situation as a failure.

Vulnerability. Vulnerability to be willing to learn and grow, ask for support, start again, and take action. Brown says vulnerability is where innovation, creativity, and change really begins.

Our growth process isn’t linear. Think of it as a sinewave (or series of ups and downs). The goal is to put in place wellness practices, tools and a support system at the top and bottom, as a buffer, to help maintain balance when you experience the normal ups and downs. Without the practices, tools and support, you’ll tend to experience higher peaks and lower valleys, leading to unhealthy habits and relationships, get stuck, and become discouraged.

When it comes to taking action, focus on making small, consistent steps forward towards achieving your intensions. “Atomic Habits” author James Clear says if you decided to make just a one percent change, daily, for one year, the compound effect would be thirty-seven times better than you are now!  

If you want to live a life of purpose and meaning, then, like nature, take a little time this fall to pause and reevaluate what you want in life. Reflect if you are in integrity and alignment with yourself. Then have the courage, curiosity, and vulnerability to let go of what no longer serves you, refocus on your intensions, and take small consistent action steps forward. 

Taking time to evaluate your life enables you to recharge, grow, begin again, and move forward towards what you want to create, or how you want to be in this world.

I love the lessons the fall season can show us. How about you?

(Original article in Gig Harbor Living Local magazine, September, 2021)