What Season
Am I In?
September is Self-Care Awareness Month — maybe self-care isn't asking how to make life easier, but what season you're actually in.
Maybe sometimes it's asking, What season am I actually in? Harder? Hard? Soft?
September is Self-Care Awareness Month. There's often a stigma around what self-care actually is. It can be viewed as selfish, weak, even lazy. It's quite the opposite. Self-care is managing your own well-being and daily health needs to preserve or improve your physical, mental, and emotional health.
I often say it's a form of self-preservation. And it doesn't always mean slowing down or coming to a full stop.
On a recent morning walk, I had an a-ha. I tend to move through three different seasons:
Three Seasons
Harder.
Hard.
Soft.
A Harder season
A Harder season is concentrated and intentional. It's a period of time for building, pushing, changing something, and going after a result.
Those seasons can be incredible. They can also be taxing. They come at the cost of less sleep, less capacity, less time, and very little grace. The intensity is high and the focus is locked in.
I don't think Harder seasons are meant to be sustainable. They're a period. And there should be a period at the end.
Then there's Hard
Hard is challenging, yet sustainable. It's where we grow, learn, stretch, and build capacity.
I love the phrase "choose your hard," and I like to add my own spin to it:
Choose your hard. Just make sure you're choosing your hard, and not choosing your comfortable.
Hard isn't the problem. Living in Harder all the time is. That's where burnout, stress, and exhaustion live.
After Harder, a Soft summer
After a very focused eight months of harder workouts, harder nutrition plans, and harder concentration to hit my goal, I shifted my focus to a Soft summer.
Soft doesn't mean stop, and it's not meant to create atrophy. It means I can coast a little and enjoy the fruits of the hard work.
After eight years of consistently taking care of my health, I know a softer season isn't going to erase the foundation I've built. In fact, that foundation is why I get to have a Soft season. I never worried about falling off or losing the progress I'd made, because the work had already been done. My job was just to maintain it.
Soft is meant to let you enjoy the recovery and the momentum that allow you to slow down before you go Hard, or Harder, again.
It's true in business, too
This is true in business, too. Businesses have their own version of Harder, Hard, and Soft. Some seasons we build. Some seasons we sprint. Other seasons we get to enjoy what we built.
The mistake is believing every season should look like your biggest growth season. It shouldn't.
And when it's time to go Harder again, I know I can. Because I've done it before. And because I know Soft is on the other side.
So maybe self-care isn't always asking, How can I make life easier right now?
Maybe sometimes it's asking, What season am I actually in?
Harder? Hard? Soft?
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This content is for informational purposes only and does not replace professional medical advice. See full disclaimer.