Seasons of Life Part 2

Hello, this is Devon Harris and I am excited to be with you again on Keep On Pushing radio. We remain committed and passionate about sharing ideas and insights that are going to challenge and inspire you to live your best life. This episode of our podcast is actually part two of the series we started last week on the Seasons Of Life.

I think you remember that it is inspired by the work of the late great Jim Rohn. Last time we covered quite a bit of ground so let’s do a quick recap, shall we?

We started off by acknowledging that we have no control over when and how our environment changes but as it does, as the seasons change, they definitely impact us. This is as true for the seasons of the year as it is for the seasons of life. And yes, while we may not have any control over the fact that these changes will impact us, we always have the ability to respond appropriately to ensure that we come out on the other side successfully.

But that means that we have to take responsibility. Regardless of what happens to us, it is important to recognize that our power to respond in an empowering way, rests not in the past, not in the future but in the present.

As the author Charles Givens once said, “ Focusing your mind exclusively on the past or the future will get you into trouble and render you ineffective while you are in the present. All of your power to accomplish, your ability to be effective, make decisions, be happy and to exert maximum personal control over your life, lies only in each succession of present moments”
We also challenged you to consider the fact that you would not willingly drink a glass of poison, right?

You wouldn’t, but yet you would hang around poisonous people who would in fact kill the thirst of achievement and success

They would trample on ambition, snuff out your hope and stifle your enthusiasm with their leaky logic and fallacious philosophy.

Because that is such a clear fact and happens far too often, I suggested that you change your feathers and start flying with some other birds. And for sure, you might be accused of getting rich and switching but if you are interested in your personal success and happiness, that is what you must do.

We discussed self evaluation. A practice and a skill that is vital to your personal development. From time to time, you have to take a time out in order to honestly analyze where you are and what you need to do in order to get to where you need to go. This practice speaks to and support our innate desire as human beings for personal growth and improvement.

The fact of the matter is that our needs and desires change, and as much as we sometimes loathe change; our habits and priorities must change with them, especially since our environment is constantly changing.

It is our ability to change, our ability to deliberately work to self improve in the face our changing environment and circumstances that allows us to better handle the harshest seasons of life while at the same time prepares us to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the more benevolent ones.

Here is one important thing to bear in mind….

We create the seasons of our lives. We do that through the choices and decisions we make on a daily basis and a seemingly insignificant choice made today could very well change the tide of the seasons as we move into tomorrow.

For things not to change, we must stay the same. However, if our needs and desires are constantly changing, if our environment and circumstances are constantly changing and we need to make decisions to address those changes, it becomes impossible for us to remain the same, doesn’t it?

So yes, we create the seasons through our choices—our responses and reactions to people, events and circumstances.

So as we use the seasons of the year as an analogy as we discuss the seasons of your life; I’d like to invite you to engage in some self reflection.

Consider the following questions:

Which season are you currently transitioning through at this very moment?

How have the seasons shaped your character?

How have the seasons strengthened your character?

How have the seasons enriched your life experience.?

You see, the seasons of life are there to teach us lessons about ourselves, about those around us and about life in general. They are there to help us grow emotionally, physically and socially. And they are there to enliven our spirit,harden our soul, and to strengthen our emotional resilience in the face of adversity and opportunity.

So let’s jump right into it!

The first season we’ll look at is spring.

SPRING 

Spring, the season which follows winter is a season of activity. It is a time for learning, It is a time for discovering new opportunities, It is a time for dynamic thinking. This is the season when you enter the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment and a determined effort.

Whether you are business person, a professional, a student, a parent, a spouse, make no mistake about it, springtime is a time for activity. It is a time for enrolling in that class that you’ve always wanted to take. It is the time to hire that personal trainer, or have that difficult but important conversation that you’ve been putting off. Spring time is the time to develop the courage to change your job or industry, to start that business or reorganize your business or perhaps even change your mind about something or someone.

In essence, this season, spring time, encapsulates moments of your life where you begin to think strategically about your circumstances. It epitomizes those times where you start to expand your horizons socially and emotionally, and it represents the moments when you begin to take the time to learn the skills required to achieve your new goals and objectives.

So if that wasn’t clear enough for you, let me reiterate, springtime is not a time for you to linger. It is not a time for you to be doodling…..building castles in the sky.

It is not a time for you to be resting on your laurels and basking in the your past success and it is sure not a time for you to be moping about past failures either.

It is simply a time for you to get busy, focused, industrious.

Now, the thing you have to be mindful about is that springtime has a funny way of showing itself ever so brieflyor  even distracting us, lulling us into inactivity because it is so beautiful. It is so enchanting. The charm of spring is quite alluring and beguiling.

That is why so many people make the mistake of taking time off in the spring. It is almost as if they became bewitched—hypnotized by the flowers blooming and the birds chirping and the nice weather— the therapeutic warmth of the sun after a brutal winter,and the next thing you know, spring has ended and they still have all their seeds in their sack. Nothing has been planted. They are still sitting on all the brilliant ideas they’ve had percolating in their minds, not one of them implemented.

Here is the thing you have to be acutely aware of:

Life in general doesn’t care. It presents circumstances or situations in your experience and you do with it what you will. Remember, you always have a choice over the actions you will take. You just don’t get to chose the consequences of those actions.

So life doesn’t care and guess what?

Spring doesn’t care either. Spring doesn’t care if you sleep or sow. It doesn’t care about effort or indolence. It doesn’t care if you plant abundantly or meagerly. In fact, it doesn’t care if you plant at all. It won’t send you reminders. It simply presents itself.

It will say, “hey, here I am! This is your time. Opportunity is knocking on your door.” And then it is going to be up to you.

So yes, it will show up but it won’t remind you, it won’t wake you up, it won’t encourage you, and don’t  worry, it won’t admonish or criticize you either. It will just be.

Some say opportunity is everywhere and it is true. Life is constantly changing and as such constantly presenting us with opportunities. You can seize the opportunity to do nothing or to do something. Maybe do something different for a change.

In the end, it’s all on you. You have to recognize it. It is your job to recognize that it is spring time and although the weather is nice , it is not time to be lounging but rather time to get up from your comfortable chair or out of your comfortable bed and get busy. Get to planting, get to undertaking the activities that are going to reap bountiful rewards in the fall.

SUMMER

Of course spring is followed by summer.

You see, once the seeds have been planted in the spring, the seeds themselves have the challenging task of pushing away the soil in an effort to find the light and the moisture that is going to allow them to thrive.

It is the same with success in life. It is not an easy task for us. However, you define success, achieving it requires constant effort. It requires you to Keep On Pushing against, over, under or around the obstacles that might discourage the feeble and undeserving. Because just when you think you’ve had one obstacle beat, there comes another and another. Life is designed that way though. Life is a story of achievement inspite of adversity. Yes, I know we would much rather do without the adversity but guess what? Without the adversity there would be no such thing as achievement.

Think about it. Take a look at nature. Do the seeds complain about the soil and rocks they must grow through, around and under in order to thrive?

Nope, they don’t!

They instinctively know that in order to get to the air or moisture they need to be healthy and energized, they must undertake the challenging effort of getting past the obstacles.

The seeds have to do it, so do you think you shouldn’t have to do it?

Don’t you think you should stop complaining about the challenges you have to face in life? You don’t expect success— a bounteous crop to be delivered on a sliver platter to you, do you?

Ok, then, stop complaining about it being hard.

Jim Rohn said it best, “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge wish, for more wisdom.”

So, let me say this, just in case you’ve missed it somewhere along the line…… life is filled with challenges.  Life is filled with challenges. There is an unrelenting downward pull in life and it leads to discouragement, disappoint, disillusionment….sometimes even despair. Justifiably so, you can make a great argument that those are plenty of good reasons to complain but guess what, when you complain you are only adding to the downward spiral of negativity that is ever present in life. Sounds to me like when you complain, you are just making things that much harder for yourself. What do you think?

You see, the bugs and weeds of life are always going to be there. And their job is to feed and survive on your good efforts and hard work. That is their raison d’être. Their whole reason for being.

Summer brings them out.

Summer brings plenty of  harmful weeds and busy bugs so you have to be constantly on guard. The summer of life is a time for you to protect all the good work —all the effort you made in the spring.

As we discussed earlier, spring time is when you create things of value but these things need the summer. The summer is when they grow and gain strength in order to produce fruits.

So the thing is, as much as you would like to take a break…… I mean…. you worked so hard in the spring, right?

It only seems proper, it only seems right that, the end of spring or the beginning of summer is a time to light up the bar-b-qu grill, find your favorite fishing hole or head to the beach. It is time for some R & R baby! …..some rest and recuperation, right?

Wrong!!!

The end of spring only means one thing and one thing only and it is this….one kind of effort ends and another begins. 

That’s all it means!

One kind of effort ends and another begins.

Look man, you worked so hard in the spring. You planted all of your seeds. When others were taking time off, allowing themselves to be distracted by the beautiful weather and the warm sun, you were out in the field busting it.

Now that it is summer…..a season that is even more alluring and beguiling…..You are not going to let all that hard work go to waste are you?

You see, when you take time off….when you lack effort

or worse, when you show neglect….that’s when  growth ends and stagnation and decay set in.

Here is the thing you have to realize…. planting your seeds requires concerted effort. They will not plant themselves but the weeds on the other hand….the weed and bugs of life grow automatically. There is no need to plant or care for them. You can simply expect them to appear.

Their purpose is to feed and survive off your good efforts. They are there to test your commitment and your will to succeed. They are there quite frankly to test your worthiness of life’s rich rewards.

So, know this man, all good will be attacked.

It is really important that we develop an understanding and an awareness of this fact. That’s just how it is.That is the law of nature. That is nature’s way of qualifying those who are worthy from those who are not.

The weeds of life, the bugs of life, they are always going to be there. They turn confidence into doubt, trust into suspicion, patience into impatience , effort into procrastination, worry and eventual defeat.

Of such is life.

Unfair?

Perhaps!

But as I just said…..that is simply the way it is. Those are the rules. That is how life plays it’s game.  Summer rolls around and the bugs and the weeds come out. In the summer of life, the bugs and weeds are the perpetual stream of negativity— the misfortunes, the disasters and crises that we have to face from time time.

Needless to say, you have to learn to accept the existence of this negativity.

Now, note I didn’t say you have to resign yourself to the existence of the negativity. Resignation means that you would be at the mercy of the negativity is swirling around you. There is no upside to that.

The good news about simply accepting that that is the way things are…(it is something you have to learn as well) ….negativity always yields to constant effort coupled with growing human faith and attitude.

Yeah man, negativity always back down to constant effort

So while I know that we would much rather not have to deal with adversity in our lives…..we have to learn to be grateful for it.

No man, you are not going crazy, you heard me correctly…..be grateful for adversity. Adversity allows you to grow. You’ve heard the saying….”what doesn’t kill you make you stronger”?

That quote is attributed to the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Actually, he said it much more eloquently: “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” It turns out that he was right. This plays out not just in our lives but in nature as well.

Take a look at the oyster. It gets a grain of sand lodged inside and how does he deal with this irritant? He makes the most of the situation by transforming the sand into a beautiful pearl! Without the challenge of this uncomfortable grain of sand, the oyster would never have made this pearl.

There is certainly a tendency for some people to be afraid of adversity and try to avoid it all costs. And while I am not suggesting that you should seek out adversity, you are undoubtedly, doing yourself a disservice when you shun it. As I said earlier, without adversity, there is no learning, no growth, and no discoveries. Without the irritant in your lives, you have no chance of making pearls.

As a retired athlete, I can tell you that practice for the most part is not fun and games. It is tedious and at times excruciatingly painful but the athlete knows that the muscles will only grow in strength and stamina when put under stress.

My advice to you is that when you face adversity, treat it as an opportunity rather than something to loathe. This will help you to see and use the adversity as a stepping stone instead of having it being a stumbling block or something that is going to crush you. And so, with each adversity you overcome, you will find that you gain invaluable knowledge and yes, grow stronger.

The bottom line is that people and events will challenge you, they will disappoint you, even hurt you. Among the people will be those you love and care about you the most and quite honestly, most of the time, their intention was not to hurt you but it happened anyway.

Again, that’s life!

You are not the first and you certainly wont be the last to be hurt by someone’s inappropriate actions or disadvantaged by events beyond your control.

The only way to avoid or at least mitigate those circumstances is to withdraw yourself from society and since that would turn you into a disappointed, miserable, lonely recluse, it seems your only viable option is to get better.

In other words, when people and events hurt you, the key is work harder on yourself.

Remember Jim Rohn’s admonition…..”Don’t wish for things to get easier, wish for you to get better.”

Since you have no control over the traffic, weather, your neighbors, the stock market, your boss and so on, it makes sense to exercise control over yourself. In the end, when you face difficulties—the bugs and weeds of summer —that is the only response that really matters.

Ok, let’s take a quick break, 

You are listening to Keep On Pushing radio….……and we’ll be right back.

Thanks for staying with us….you are listening to Keep On Pushing radio and I am your host Devon Harris

Btw…i want to invite you to check out my website…www.devonharris.com

If your organization or company is looking for a keynote speaker, a seminar leader……I would love to discuss those needs with you……just email me at Devon@devonharris.com…….thought I’d make it easy for you to remember…..devon@devonharris.com

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Don’t forget to visit the store….you can grab yourself a copy of my children’s book  “Yes, I can! or my semin-autobiographical motivational book….Keep On Pushing: Hot lessons from cool runnings.

You will also find some free tools on the site

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So just stop on by….www.devonharris.com

As you know we are using the seasons of the year as an analogy to discuss the seasons of life. And as I mentioned before, this podcast is the 2nd of a two part series inspired by the work of the late Jim Rohn.

We know that the seasons of the year change automatically without our input and as long as we respond to them appropriately, we will make it it through successfully. On the other hand, we create the seasons of our lives by the actions we take but yes as long as we respond appropriately, we’ll make it through successfully as well.

As we progress along this journey of life, our desires and needs change and as a result so do our habits and priorities. Those changes—in our desires, needs, habits and routines, etc obviously impact the decisions and choices we make and that impacts the season of life we are going to experience. To repeat what I just said, we create the seasons of our lives through the choices we make.

So a seemingly insignificant choice made today could possibly change the tide of the seasons of our lives as we move into tomorrow. For things not to change, for our seasons not to change, we must stay the same but we know that that is not possible.

If our environment and circumstances, our needs and desires are constantly changing and we are making decisions to address those changes, then it is virtually impossible to remain the same. So we have to learn to handle those changes as they give rise to the different seasons of our lives.

We spoke about the fact that spring is a time for dynamic thinking.

It is a time for learning and discovering new opportunities. Whether you are a business person, a professional, a student, a parent, a spouse, spring is the season when you enter the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment and a determined effort.

Springtime has a funny way of showing itself ever so briefly or  even distracting us….lulling us into inactivity because it is so beautiful.

Unfortunately, spring doesn’t care. Life doesn’t care. You are presented with circumstances or situations in your experience and you do with it what you will.

With the end of spring comes summer. That means that one kind of effort ends and another begins. You see, once you’ve done all this hard work in the spring, you can’t just sit back and watch your crops grow. As hard as you worked to plant them; you have to work just as hard to protect them from the the bugs and weeds that undoubtedly will show up in the summer.

In the summer of life, the bugs and weeds of summer are the perpetual stream of negativity that you have to deal with. Once you have learnt to accept that this negativity exist…..that that’s just the way life is…..you’ll begin to see opportunity nestled within the adversity. You’ll begin to see adversity as a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block

AUTUMN

That brings us to Autumn.

Autumn is a time for celebration. Autumn is a time for feeling joyful. It is a time to allow yourself to be washed with a sense of satisfaction. After all, you have just made it through two seasons of intense effort.

You made it through springtime, when you were out busy planting your seeds. You planted abundantly and did not rest on your laurels.

And you made it through summertime. Summer came and instead of chilling because you had done all this work in the spring, you switched effort and spent your time resisting the bugs and the weeds so that your crops could flourish.

Well done! Good job!

You did what you were suppose to. You took care of business.

Now it is Autumn! It is time to reap the fruits of your labor. So yes, you definitely should take some pride in your achievement.

But look, fall is also a time for reflection though. It is a time for some serious soul searching.

You know why?

If you were one of those who neglected to take full advantage of the arrival of spring, to put it mildly….. Autumn can be very unkind.

Autumn can be a time of turmoil, a time of anxiety and deep regret.

And here is why I say that…..

Autumn is when we discover how long or how harsh the winter is going to be. Autumn is a time of reckoning. That is when we find out or more accurately, that is when it is revealed, if you really did what was required of you or you just fooled yourself into believing that you did.

When I speak to young kids, I often equate the long hours of training and practice athletes do to the studying, the classroom work and the homework that they as students are required to do. And the Olympics, I would tell them, are like that big quiz, that important exam that they have to write. Athletes know that they have to do their homework, they have to practice. They know fully well that there is another athlete out there who IS putting in the work. Perhaps he or she is on the other side of the world but guess what? We all meet up at the Olympic Games, it will be obvious as to who put the work in and who did not. Regardless of your sport, when we get in the competition arena, we will know who prepared in the off season and who didn’t. Now, you and I know that this analogy is not 100% true in all aspects…..there are a myriad of factors that will determine how well an athlete performs at the Olympic but you get the picture, right?

The week before the Opening Ceremonies is NOT the time to start preparing for the Olympic Games. The beginning of the Opening Ceremonies mark the time when you begin to be held accountable for what you did prior to the Games in the same way that the arrival of Autumn —the cooling of the temperatures, the hardening of the soil becomes the seat of judgment.

Whether it is the student in the classroom getting ready to write their exam, a salesman tallying up his sales at the end of the month or the business owner assessing the growth of his business at the end of the quarter —the seat of judgment presents the final truth on human effort. And no matter how you try, you cannot argue with the verdict. The evidence of toil and effort, care and patience and persistence, commitment and discipline is there. It is undeniable. Everyone can see it.

I am reminded of when I was in elementary school. We had an open house at our school and the students spent weeks preparing— making beautiful crafts of all kinds. I had more than enough opportunities to participate and make something of my own but for reasons I still cannot explain today, I always found a way not to make anything. And then came the big day. All the students had the various pieces of work, beautifully painted, stitched and sewn, nicely displayed with their names firmly and clearly affixed, for all to see and appreciate. But there was none for Devon Harris. Not one piece. I remember how awful I felt and how I rummaged through the trash trying to find any of the discarded pieces —no matter how ugly and imperfect it was so that I could affix my name to it and put it on display. Unfortunately, they had already hauled off the trash and I found nothing! But I learnt a very valuable lesson that day—the results we achieve are a clear indication of the effort you put in.

Well, for the most part they are are. Barring any unforeseen circumstances….any situation beyond your control….Murphy and his law jumping in to screw things up….barring any of that…..our results reflect our effort. And sometimes we don’t like it.

But yes, the seat of judgement…the arrival of Autumn is brutally honest.

The evidence is absolutely clear….the crops are either bountiful or they are not. There is no middle ground here. And if they are not, guess what?

You only have to look as far as your own hands to see why.

For sure, you could blame poor soil, bad seed, terrible weather conditions and so on but you and I know you know that those are just excuses.

Each of us have to take responsibility for our results.

Hey, do you want to enjoy a bounteous crop in the Autumn?

Then you have to take massive and sustained effort in the spring. Note, I didn’t say you take massive action in spurts or you do a little something consistently. It is massive …….sustained…… effort!

Look, sometimes, forty or fifty hours of work in the field of opportunity —beating the pavement —hammering out calls on the phone…whatever it is,  might not be enough……especially if it is being spent in the wrong field.  It might just not be enough.

This is where your skill of self evaluation which we spoke about in part 1 of this series would come in handy.

You might not want to hear….you might be in denial but through the process of self evaluation —sifting through the debris…you might arrive at the painful conclusion that your current field is just not fertile enough!

it’s just too rocky or sandy or whatever it is and yes, I admit that it can be incredibly difficult to change fields but I guess you have to weigh that against the difficulties, and hardships that comes from dealing with the frustrating results you are getting from toiling in the wrong field.

I definitely don’t want to venture into politics but you hear so many stories of people braving the high seas on rafts to come to this country where they hope to find more fertile soil in which to plant their seed and yet you have so many people here in this country who refuse to change jobs, industry  or even city in the hopes of finding better conditions.

In the end, they blame circumstances for their meagre harvest. They blame others. They blame the government for not creating enough jobs or not managing the economy well. They blame immigrants for taking their jobs and they blame companies for shipping their jobs overseas.  They lay the responsibility of their success at the feet of everyone but their own.

WINTER

That takes us to winter.

Back in July 1998 I was in Evanston, WY training in preparation for the upcoming bobsled season. At the time I was planning to make a run at my fourth Olympic Games. After a rocky start with the airline loosing my bag with my training gear and then delivering it a few days late, I woke up early in the morning ready to kick my training into high gear only to discover that six inches of snow had fallen overnight. Yes, you heard me correctly…..snow in the middle of summer! I was shocked!

Some years later back in New York, it’s the middle of April and I can remember walking out of my house while the snow fell and the birds chirped away. I could only imagine that they wondering whose bright idea it was to fly back so soon.

These two experiences are poignant reminders that like spring, winter can make a brief appearance before any season of our life— it can make a brief and if I might say effective reminder of it s power!

Winter can drop in threateningly during spring —-the season of opportunity. And failure to respond quickly and decisively to negate its potentially devastating effect will rob us of opportunity and force another year of waiting upon us.

As we remain conscientious during the summer carefully tending to our crops, winter can also suddenly descend upon us and while the appearance might be short-lived, it threatens to take away the fruits of our labour.

Winter can also make a premature appearance during harvest time in the fall, just as we are about to reap the fruits of our labor leaving us with crops or results that do not truly reflect our efforts and are of very little value.

The bottom line is that we have to be always mindful of the fact that winter will always come. Sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly. Not only in the the winter of snow and ice and frigid temperatures and arctic winds that appear from December to February if you live in the Northern hemisphere or June to August in the Southern hemisphere but also in the human winters of loneliness, despair, disappoint and tragedy.

Make no mistake about it. When the economy goes south; that’s winter. It is winter when you get downsized or your business starts to decline. It is winter when  the competition increases, a friend takes advantage of you or you are faced with a health crisis. It is winter when your prayers go unanswered and despair sets in. It is winter when your children disappoint you. Yes, winter comes in many forms and as I just said it can show up at anytime; whether you are a farmer in the field, a businessman in an office or even your own life.

When winter does turn up, only one of two scenarios can play out. You are either prepared or you are not.

For those who are prepared…those who have planted abundantly in the spring, guarded the crops carefully during the summer and harvested massively in the fall, winter can be yet another season of opportunity. It can be a time of great enjoyment reading and gathering your strength for the coming spring.

Be careful though…..use the winter for rest but don’t allow yourself to get lazy.

Remember you have to keep on pushing. You have to be constantly growing. Nothing remains the same.So you should use your time during the winter to improve, to get better for the coming spring. That is one of the reasons why you see so many people going to the gym in the winter. They are trying to get and look better physically. They use the winter to work on what they call their summer body. It is the same principle at work in your life. Even though you were prepared, when the cold and dark of your winters do come, you still have to continue working so that you can take full advantage when spring comes around again.

So while things may slow down in the winter, it is a time to be reassured and confident that your effort, and the skills that you have developed would have put you in good stead for the next season of opportunity.

If you are unprepared, then the approach of winter is a time of great sorrow.  A cold barren winter is reflective of lack of effort in the spring or the failure to be diligent in the summer.

You have to pay the price. As they say, “No pain, no gain”

Your unwillingness to bear the pain of discipline will undoubtedly weigh you down with the chains of regret. Imagine how different things would have been if you had just done the work. Imagine that could have been but now all you have to show is regret .

Regret manifests itself in the form of an empty bank account, declining business,strained relationships and so on.

And even when springs comes back around, because of the tough winter,, we are forced to tender the fields of opportunity on an empty stomach or an empty wallet. You see, our choices have consequences and oftentimes those consequences are felt much longer than we could ever have imagined. Failure to be industrious in the spring—-the season of opportunity can haunt us all the way to the next spring.

When you are unprepared for winter, its arrival is full of horror and uncertainty. When you are prepared though, winter is springtime in another form.

I said it earlier, winter can make an appearance during any season of the year. It touches our lives in many ways —testing and challenging us and subtly reminding us that of the predicament of those who lives have been touched by winter.

Whether it is sagging economy, a lucrative and reliable account that now ends up with a competitor, loss opportunity, loss love, broken trust in a friend; winter’s impact can be harsh.

The challenge we all face is to not allow winter to affect the arrival of spring .

We also have to develop the ability to recognize when spring has arrived. That is equally important. As Jim Rhon puts it, Much of life is in learning to always remain part of the solution rather than allowing ourselves to become part of the problem.” 

You see friends, the seasons of life are about transformation and change.

And as we journey through life, learning to effectively transition from one set of conditions or circumstances to another, it is also about self improvement and growth.  Needless to say, the seasons of life don’t necessarily cycle from spring to summer to fall to winter and back again. It all depends on the choices and decisions we make on a daily basis. Any of the seasons, spring and winter in particular can appear at any time in our lives.

In the end, each change, each transition facilitates our growth and development paving the way for ever richer experiences that will enable us to overcome the obstacles and challenges that life inevitably throws our way.

I trust you enjoyed this program.

We encourage you to keep changing, keep growing and as always….

Keep On Pushing!

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