Cycles of life

My birthday as arrived and with that comes more time for reflection and goal setting as I move forward into this next year/chapter in my life. I have come to realize that my life operates in cycles. I think of these cycles in terms of macro (10 years) and micro (2-3 years) cyclic events. As I look back on my life, every 10 years a major event happens that ends up having a profound change in my life followed by smaller changes every 2-3 years in between.

When I was 10, my family decided to pick up and move to another state which kicked off a chain reaction of moving every 2-3 years thereafter. When I was 20, I decided that I wasn’t happy with my life and made the decision to travel abroad to Thailand to train and compete in Muay Thai Kickboxing. While I was there, I rediscovered my passion for learning and physical and mental training which ultimately led me to return to the state and pursue a career in athletic performance. This new job had me picking up and moving every 2-3 years to climb the ranks in the coaching world. At 30, I was let go from my NFL coaching job and made the decision to invest in myself and become an entrepreneur.

With all the change that happens around us, I think it is important to take note of your own personal cycles and observe how those have shaped your life. I think it is also important to realize that there are “seasons” within each year. Jim Rohn talks about how there are 4 seasons to life and business. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Winter is a time for preparation. You can take stock, evaluate, increase your knowledge and prepare for the following seasons.

Spring is a time to create and take advantage of opportunities. Be creative and experiment, cultivate ideas and act on them in small cycles of experiments to see what works and what doesn’t.

Summer is a time to pay close attention to your projects you’ve been working and more importantly to those projects that show the most promise. Reinforce relationships and build value in what it is you want to accomplish by casting your vision and making it known.

Fall is a time to harvest or see the results from your time spent in Spring and Summer. You have experimented with different ideas and honed in on what will bring you the most return on your investment. You’ve taken some risks, but have learned a lot in the process. It’s a time to acknowledge your accomplishments and take note of what worked and what didn’t so that the next winter you can go back to the drawing board and continue to make improvements.

I encourage you to take some time to acknowledge your own cycles you experience in your life. Are there any patterns you see? Do you find that Jim Rohn’s explanation of seasons relates to you? The ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus noted that “the only constant is change.” At the end of the day, it’s about bringing more awareness to yourself and your life so you can fully take ownership of it.