Navigating life’s seasons
Photo by Joel Holland on Unsplash
A life well lived requires balancing your health, time, and financial resources. However, these resources tend to ebb and flow as you navigate life’s seasons:
Youth: Healthy and lots of available time but limited financial resources.
Middle age: Mostly healthy and more financial resources but limited time.
Later years: Lots of available time & financial resources but health issues arise.
Your ability to navigate life’s seasons directly impacts how much you enjoy the ride.
Here are the three approaches I see the most often:
Resignation
You approach life as if the die is already cast and there isn’t much you or anyone else can really do about it.
While I’ll accept that a lot of life is out of our control, I’d argue you still have plenty of autonomy and control over your own choices. It’s up to you whether you focus on your personal choices or lament all the things you can’t control instead.
Resistance
You spend a lot of your time and energy fighting back against life’s seasons. You’re doing everything you can to stay a level or two below the one you actually find yourself in.
While resistance is better than resignation, this approach isn’t going to be sustainable in the long term. As the phrase goes, Father Time is undefeated. You’re also missing out on the advantages that come with your current life stage if you’re too focused on one that no longer exists.
Which brings us to my preferred approach…
Acceptance
I think the best way to navigate life’s seasons is to practice radical acceptance.
Acceptance requires letting go of all the things you can’t control so you can focus on those few things you can control.
Acceptance requires being honest with yourself about the actual life stage you find yourself in and making choices around what’s reasonable and beneficial given your current life stage.
When you acknowledge your current life stage and focus on your own choices, you’re now devoting your time and energy to making adjustments that will improve your life.
Let’s use middle age – relatively healthy, more financial resources, but limited time – as our example.
Following a workout plan built by a Gen Z influencer is probably not the best course of action. Your body isn’t going to bounce back the same way it once did. The solution isn’t to stop working out, rather it’s tailoring your workouts to match your current life stage.
Middle age also often requires accepting that you won't have as much time for your own friends and activities as you did when you were younger. You’ve probably got your own kids’ activities all weekend now instead.
However, when you’re in middle age and your time is limited, spending some of your financial resources to hire a trainer to help maintain your health is probably money well spent. The same goes for having a regular babysitter on call so you can get some nights out with your partner or friends.
As you can see, the first step to successfully navigate life’s seasons requires being honest with yourself about which season you find yourself in. From there, your approach towards life – resignation, resistance, or acceptance – makes all the difference.
If you need help evaluating where you find yourself and how best to approach it, I’d be honored to act as your guide.