The start of the calendar year comes with a lot of pressure.
Pressure to burst out of the gate with big visions, big plans, and big action. Pressure to constantly be growing, to build on what you did before, to aim toward bigger and “better” goals. To have more, do more, be more.
We have a deeply-embedded cultural expectation that growth should be continuous.
Heavier weights on the bar. Bigger income. More sales. Higher production output. Continual growth in markets.
But that’s not how things work in the real world.
Nature operates in cycles of contraction and expansion.
A seed takes root, it sprouts into a flower, eventually the flower decays and dies, it has a period of dormancy, and then it eventually it reblooms.
Humans are part of nature, and we are no different. Sometimes it’s necessary to scale back in order to move forward more effectively.
Consider how professional athletes function. In their sport’s active season, they push hard. In their off-season, they take time to rest. During their rest season, they might engage in basic conditioning, but they aren’t going at full force.
When professional athletes return from the off-season, they don’t just jump into their full competition schedule. There’s a ramp up. They start with pre-season training and exhibition games before getting into the heavy daily grind of their main season.
This mirrors the cycles of the seasons:
- Pre-season = Spring
- Main season = Summer
- Post-season = Autumn
- Off-season = Winter
It’s only in the world of corporations, productivity optimization, and hustle culture that we see an expectation for continual growth and building. The pressure to always be expanding and growing stifles our attunement to the natural rhythms and cycles of life.
Although some people call this the “real world,” there’s nothing natural about this expectation.
Sometimes, the best way to grow is to scale back before moving forward.
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