Energy, mood, motivation - they all change over a week, month, year. But do you find yourself coming back to what feels like the same place, the same feeling?

Have you ever zoomed out to look at how what's happening seasonally and cyclically inside and outside of you impacts on how you show up in your business?

Today's episode is an invitation to get curious, build awareness and use that awareness as a tool in business and life.

Let's dive in.

Links, resources & mentions

Seasonal Intentions Insta link

The movement maestro - Shante Cofield

Do Less Kate Northrup

Episode Transcript

Laura Jean 0:07

Hello Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The dietitian values Podcast. Today I want to talk about seasonality and cycles in business. Particularly, I want to give you an invitation I suppose to think about how your body and how you as a business owner work in relation to seasons and cycles. and that's seasons and cycles, things outside of you and also things that are more close and personal and closer to home. So let's dive in. So this is something I've been thinking about talking about for a little while and then this past week, in or last week in the business coaching that I'm part of or business community I'm part of with the movement maestro, there was a guest in who talked about seasonality and not necessarily seasonality and business but just was talking about the concept of seasonality and that's seasonal intentions on Instagram and I'll link to their Instagram bio in the show notes in case you want to check out their work. And they were talking about seasonality and it got me thinking around, how I just use that in my business how I look at seasons and seasons as in the physical seasons of course, but also the seasons of life that I find myself in and the different cycles that I find myself in and also cycles I find myself in but also as somebody who is a menstruating human, and the cycles that happen inside my own body, and how I look at all those different things and use that as information and knowledge or use that as a tool to be aware of what's going on for me and sometimes use that as a planning tool in my business and in my life.

So let's dive in, shall we? Now this might be something that is a bit new to you. This might be something that feels a bit woowoo to you. And if it does, then that's fine. If this episode is not for you, no worries. I would encourage you to take a listen with an open mind and just see see where it goes. And to see, to listen as Shantefrom the movement Maestro says, to listen around the edges and to take away what resonates for you and leave what doesn't. So what do I mean when I talk about this, about looking at seasons? So we obviously have you know, calendar seasons and if you've ever just noticed how you feel across a year or how you feel across a week. You know, we have cycles that happen in our week. We have cycles that happen in our bodies, we have cycles, you know that are that are happening all the time. If we think about that in you might have noticed that you have different energy levels, different motivation levels, different interest levels, different requirements for rest, different requirements for connection when it's at different times of the year or different times of any seasons and cycles that you're experiencing. So to give a few examples, so if we think about calendar seasons now we've got the traditional four seasons, in Australia some of the indigenous cultures recognise six seasons across the year and in other spaces and places they might recognise less. So seasonal intentions. Emilie, who was talking she was talking about in the traditional ayavedic type space, how they look at three seasons so and so obviously people have different things. There's not just four seasons, but if we use the four seasons because that's the one we're most most of the people listening along and I know myself are the most familiar with. so if we take autumn or fall, depending where you are in the world, as a season, if we think about the shift from from summer to autumn, it's a time of kind of going inwards, you know? a time of like cosying back up and going inside. So there's real literal changes in the season. leaves fall off the trees, you know, the summer energy, the big burst in summer energy sometimes fades away and we feel a bit more reflective and we feel a bit more inward and we want things that are cosy and comfortable and so we move into that space. So that's kind of what you know, that's kind of what happens around us in those seasons. And what what that can be interesting to think about is how that works for you as an individual but also how your mood and energy and motivation changes in different seasons. So for a lot of people moving out of summer into fall, some people don't really enjoy that or even from fall into winter that kind of slowing down colder, darker type time. But I personally, to give a personal example I love it. I'm an introverted homebody. And so I really love and I also love hanging out in my own mind. I love thinking and analysing stuff. So going inwards, turning inwards and reflecting and thinking in that way is like that's kind of like my superpower space. So my energy levels as far as like getting ideas and things in that kind of time of year is actually really heightened because that's actually the season and the things happening seasonally outside of myself reflects my natural kind of personality tendencies. And then other humans that I know are more that outward, summer energy you know that they're more that that energy works for them. So summer time is the time when they feel more energised, to do things and motivated to do things when it's hot. And sometimes I often just in summertime often just want to like sit down and read books and drink cold drinks and like that's the kind of energy I bring to the summer whereas in wintertime, in full, you know, Autumn/fall I'm like doing all that inner reflective work and it gives me ideas and I'm thinking I'm writing and I'm, I'm I'm interested in reading I mean it is the time to cosy up and reading that but when I'm reading, I want to read things that build my knowledge and build my insight. in summertime I want to read things that are easy and light and don't tax my energy because I tend to feel slightly quieter in my energy levels, whereas in autumn and winter, I feel stronger in my energy. It's not. I'm never going to be jumping around with outward energy but I mean inside myself. And so that's just an example I offer up there.

And so what I would encourage and what I tend to encourage to the dieticians I worked with if this is something that's of interest to them, is to really to build some awareness to get kind of aware and get curious around what happens to you. Because what can often happen is we notice certain times of year or maybe even certain times if you are somebody who menstruate certain times of your cycle, different energy levels, so you might have different levels of motivation. You might have different levels of interest. You might be wanting to do things in different ways. And then building that awareness because that can actually be another way, another tool another bit of information you can use to plan the business that works for you to plan when to do things and when not to do things. Now of course, in an ideal world, you could plan at all just to match perfectly with your energy level. So it's not always the case. So it's not not a case of okay, well. You know, you you only do things that match your energy. I mean, if you can absolutely excellent but sometimes that's not always the case in different seasons of our life particularly as well. But when you get a bit of an awareness of that like when you can do that kind of tracking, it can be helpful.

I was talking to a coaching client about this a couple of months ago and they were talking about they just felt like they were in a spot where the motivation had dropped down. They weren't really feeling very energised. You know, things were going on externally. Like in Australia, we've had lock downs and things. So that's that kind of external kind of influences on the seasons of our life. But also it was the end of winter, it's a slower pace, everyone's kind of a bit over the weather and stuff. And we just were talking and I just suggested you know, if they were noticing a pattern is that something that happens every year. Some people get really, like I know a few humans in my life they get kind of flat around this kind of time of time of year as it's sort of that last kind of month before the end of the year you know things are everyone's kind of feeling a bit tired a bit over it. I could only a month away from from kind of Christmas and in Australia that time of year is our holiday so it's half summertime. So similarly for humans in the US. You know you're going into that kind of summertime period, you know it in April, May we tend to go into it at the same time as the Christmas wide down end of the year. So it's all together. So sometimes I think in Australia, it's much more pronounced that whole, like some people feel really drained and really over it by the end of the year. And so what you can use and like I was saying I was encouraging this client to look at is to actually track it to actually keep a bit of an awareness and a record of it. So that then what you can do is you can map out things in your business. So for example, if you know in November for example, that you just feel flat in December, you don't want to do any work because all you're focusing on is kind of Christmas stuff or getting ready for holidays or you know logistically, there's lots more things going on. There's more social occasions, there's kids, kids end of year concerts, you know, in a pre COVID world when we did things like that then what you can use as you can use that information for your business. So you might do any, you might save any launches or workshops for different times of the year and you might not do that in that time. So it might not be the right energy to launch something for you. In that time. Now there's never a perfect time. But having that knowledge of yourself can be really useful.

Also, knowing what's happening in the seasons of life for the humans you want to work with can be useful as well. So for example, if you're someone who works with let's say mums, if you're in Australia, you might go well I'm not going to launch anything over holidays over school holidays, particularly not summer school holidays because families are busy. And if you're in the US you know it's a different time of year that summer holidays are on but you might not launch anything then you might wait. You know to laugh. Everyone's got kids back to school in September in the US and in February in Australia. And wait until, and I know there are other countries in the world. I'm just using those two examples. And wait until that kind of settles down for those if they're the humans you want to work with insane if that's you as well if that's things that you're impacted on by your seasons of life. So for example for me, I have three young children and so I'm not going to be launching anything over the summer holidays when they're here which is January for me. I'm going to be getting a kid off to kindy next year, at the end of January. They're going to be starting their first year of school and getting my oldest back to school. So I'm not going to be launching anything or planning anything to start then for me if I'm going to plan anything for the new year. It's probably going to be roughly you know, a month after we're back at school after the kids are settled and things like that. Because if I'm working with the resources I have available, and energies and you know knowing that kids are going to need to settle in will have new routines. We can use that knowledge so that's like some physical stuff but it's also knowing what your energy is like and where you're at. And using that.

Okay, sorry, brief pause as a child, somersaulted off the lounge and busted through the office door into the podcast recording back on track. Okay, so if you don't have small children at home, and humans you work with don't. And that's not you, then you can do things differently. So let's say you work with humans who are impacted by diet culture, and you're not somebody who has to think about , that's not a factor for you and your energy levels and what resources you have around that time. So the new year and that January period might be the perfect time for you to launch. your energy levels might be high. maybe somebody else is taking care of the kids if you've got kids or maybe you don't have kids to think about and so that might be a great time for you, energy wise and it might be a great time for the humans you want to work with as far as what's on what's going on for them. And that could be the perfect time to launch things. So it's very individual. It's very much determined by you. The season you're in,your energy levels that happen it can be very much determined by the energy levels of the humans you want to work with or the season that they're in and what's important to them. And so it's really about thinking of all of those pieces.

And so this whole idea of thinking about seasons, thinking about cycles, both inside and outside of you, is a way to just get more information about yourself and about the way you like to work and about the ways of working that can support you and the stage and phase that you are in of your business of your life of your day, week, month cycle, whatever it might be, and to map things out to kind of basically bring more ease. So for example, another one could be if you've if you're an individual who menstruate. If you know certain times of the month, you your energy levels are at a certain point or you are, you know, you feel really, let's say feel really crappy about yourself, you know, you don't like yourself much in a certain time of your cycle or you just feel really flat or you feel really sad and emotional or you feel whatever it might be. You don't want to be visible and connecting to people. Then you might say, well, I You might go well, that's not a week I'm going to schedule a launch in a month. So the month might be you know, whatever works on your calendar for when you're going to launch and then within that week of the month rather than just picking a date. You might think about well how do I feel through my month is there things like that that impact on how I feel and how I want to show up. If you don't feel great if your energy levels are low, you're tending to feel really flat. That might not be the week of your cycle and your month when you would schedule a launch where you might be doing a few more videos or you might be having to just answer more questions and interact with more people. But you might know there's a week in your cycle where that comes really much more easily to you. Or you might not like doing that at all in which case you might never do launches and you might restructure your business to be completely something else. But this just to give you an example.

And I first came across the idea of you know, thinking about cycles and thinking about that in business from Kate Northrup, in her book, do less and I'll pop the details of that in the show notes if you want to check it out, which is a really interesting way just to build awareness. And the thing about different people and different approaches and different ways of being you know, some people I've I've learned from which I don't necessarily follow all their things or I don't necessarily ascribe to all of their, their values and ways of being but like I said at the start of this episode, I can listen around the edges and I can find the things that resonate for me or the things that I want to take away from that and take those and use those and integrate them into my way of being. So often I offer up resources here and not because I say that that person is the 'person you should follow or the person should listen to you but just they-re people are spaces where I've learned things and I'm offering them up to you to go and see what works for you. Similarly how I offer things up here for you to consider in and I encourage you to take what resonates for you in your business and leave what doesn't.

So that is kind of what I wanted to talk about as far as seasonality and cycles in business and to really think about where you're at in your own stages. And if you just know you go through cycles or as Emilie from Season Intentions was talking about or or spiral so like even though like because sometimes we think of cycles, you know, I'm in exactly the same place that I was before but often we're in a place that's similar but we're different, you know, each even if you think of each month in a cycle or each season, you know each autumn each summer, it's the same. There's similarities because the same seasons coming around but it's not exactly the same because seasons hit differently, and you're different. You're different human as each season comes around. So Emilie talked about this concept of spirals, which I think was really, really helpful as well. So we're still kind of it's that cycle idea. We're going back to places we've already been but we're different and maybe sometimes the circumstances around us are different. So the Season of Life we're in. So for example, if I think about business, I'm in I've been through cycles or spirals of starting a new business, but each time I've done that I've been in different places. I've been in different seasons of my life. And so you find yourself back in a similar place, but it's also different. And so thinking about yourself, those cycles, and you know, it's it's pretty much just collecting information and collecting and learning from what's happened in the past not as a way to ruminate and to hold you back but learning and taking forward what actually benefits you taking forward what feels supportive for you to be building that business that you want to be building, be building the life that you want to live.

And so if you know there's a certain time of year where you feel really flat in your business, you can approach it one of two ways you can use that knowledge to then be like okay, well that's a time where I embrace that, where I accept that feeling. Or you can be, you might be the kind of person goes okay, well what about if I plan xyz that I know helps me to be re energised in my business again and I plan that for that time when I feel flat. So this information is for you to use how works best for you. So for example, I was saying before, you know a lot of people around sort of fall, autumn time sometimes feel like a little bit flat you know as you move into that change of season. And so depending on your personality and what works for you, you might embrace that you might lean into it and get the soups going and pull on the winter knits, grab the Nana rug, go for the afternoon naps and really embrace it. That's how you feeling. Or you might be the kind of human thinks well, Wow, that really pushes me into a different place. I don't want to be going so I might, you know, add an extra bit of joy. And so in those things, I suppose what's important, or what I would highlight, not what's important. I think it personally is important but what I would just highlight for your awareness is to notice the difference between resistance, resisting what is and also creating things to support you where you find yourself. So for example, in that, if I use that example, resisting might be where we're trying to stop things from happening to stop that natural change in energy levels and cycles. supporting yourself where you're at might be going well hey, I know I feel flat in winter time so I'm going to plan a holiday to get a little bit of a summer hit, to get a little bit of sun or I'm going to plan a holiday to you know, to do things that I enjoy doing at that time of year. So hopefully you can think you can sort of see the difference there. There's a little bit of nuance. So it's not about doing activities to push away, you know to ignore those feelings, to ignore what is, to pretend it's not happening. It's more ways for you to feel more supported in that and some people need to make sure that there's those those things in place for supporting and some people are leaner-in-ers, I'm a leaner-in-er in those kinds of situations. I like to lean into the fall, but probably because that's the energy that I really like.

So think about your personality, think about your way of working, think about how your energy shifts and changes over the year, over different months over times of the month. And create a way of working and a way of showing up that works for you and know that it will change you know depending on what's happening externally but you can use that knowledge and can use that information as a planning tool, planning what works for you in your business but also planning on you know, adjusting things if you need to or planning on putting in place things that feel more supportive if you need to. Because yeah, having that knowledge and having ways to integrate that knowledge and use it as a tool to integrate things into your life that feels supportive, things into your life that support you to do what you need to do or to move through those phases in a supportive way. So hopefully that's been helpful. And yeah, like I said, I would just really encourage you to be, build awareness to get curious to track. not track in an obsessive like monitor every minute kind of way but more just notice patterns. notice cycles or spirals and patterns for you. Notice what happens for you, you know, if you find yourself feeling the same way over and over again, what's similar? what's different? what precedes that? What is happening at the same time as that? what's happening in parallel to that? and look for patterns, look for those spirals. And yeah, and see what works for you and using it as a tool to plan and to move forward towards the life that you want to be living, the values based version of your business that you want to be creating. So hopefully that feels supportive. if you've got questions, comments, concerns of course always reach out DMS are always open or go comment on the post over at dietitian values. And I'll pop iethose couple of links in the show notes. Emily at seasonal intentions who kind of inspired this episode and what I've been thinking about around that or things I've been thinking about but in sort of inspired me to bring a conversation around that. And some of the other teachings, the do less book that I found useful for kind of thinking about this in a different way. Yeah, and take what resonates and leave what doesn't. Okay, well, I will chat to you again soon. Until then. Bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai