Changing Seasons

Recently, Bev Downs asked me to write an article for this newsletter “to inspire folks starting the new season?” I immediately flashed to images of big yellow school buses, bright orange pumpkins and rolling hills of that fabulous natural phenomena called Fall Foliage. It’s the norm in the area of the country where Bev lives and I had the opportunity to see it years ago. 

But it’s not the norm in West Texas where I live. We really don’t have a Fall season here. For me, the new season means slightly lower temperatures and time to plant my garden with lettuce and peppers. Spinach, tomatoes and beets go in later. We don’t have an Autumn to speak of and very little that could be called Winter.

And the Creativity Coaching Association is an international group with members and readers in Australia and New Zealand. For those folks, it’s the beginning of spring, is it not?

So, I had the quandary of deciding which season to focus on. Then I realized that as creative folks, we all have seasons related to our creative life. Some are obvious, like the season of a symphony orchestra. Others may not be so noticeable. So I challenge you to consider what are the seasons that surround your creative work? Do you have three creative seasons in a calendar year or five? Maybe a preparation time or ramp-up time, a completion time, say when the show is hung or the film finished and then a down time before starting again. Or is your creative life one of revolving deadlines? Have you ever considered that your creative calendar may start in November or even May? What would your own creative calendar look like? What seasons would it have? Think back over the last few years. Do you have more going on at one time of year compared to others? Recognizing the seasons in your creative life is one more way to enhance your creative time. I’d love to know what your creative calendar looks like. 

This first appeared in the September 2012 Creativity Coaching Association newsletter. You can see the whole newsletter here.