Seasons of Success: How to Use "Bad Times" to Cultivate a New Harvest

:: About Personal Growth and Coach and Accidental Entrepreneur Molly Gordon::
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November 4, 2008 12:12 PM

Seasons of Success:
How to Use "Bad Times" to Cultivate a New Harvest

In a garden and a business, there are actions appropriate to every season. A wise gardener doesn't panic because autumn has arrived, nor does she pave over her vegetable patch when it snows.

Though I wrote the following article several years ago, I think it has special relevance today. Financial markets are subject to cycles, and just as surely autumn has hit Wall Street, spring will return and business will recover.

While the next 12 months are likely to be challenging for those of us who are or want to be self-employed, there are real opportunities during down markets. When business is slow, there is time to educate yourself, to deepen your understanding of what you have to offer, and to create products and services that your clients will hunger for when the season changes.

I hope you enjoy this piece, and I welcome your comments.

I’m an aspiring vegetable gardener, and this year I managed to grow an astonishing quantity of lush, ripe tomatoes. Where I live, it is not unusual for tomatoes to languish on the vine, pining for sun and warmth that never comes, so the bounty of this harvest grabs and holds my attention.

Every day or two I go out to the garden and gather the ripest fruit. I marvel at the daily abundance and scurry to put it to good use. Even after sharing with our neighbors, my counter is mounded with plump red globes. I make and freeze tomato sauce; I keep picking.

Even as I exult in my tomato wealth, I notice that the leaves of the neighboring squash and cucumber vines are turning yellow. The beans have stopped the wild clambering skyward and are slumping against their poles, sinking toward the ground. At the peak of this perfect harvest, my garden is dying.

In life and work, we often experience great abundance at the very moment that our fortunes appear to decline. Sometimes the decline is the result of external events. Sometimes, just as we achieve the pinnacle of our aspirations, something in us begins to whisper that winter is coming.

If we don’t have a context for it, this can be deeply unsettling. We may conclude that there is something wrong with us, with our work, with our relationships. We may accuse ourselves or others of lacking focus, fearing failure, self-sabotage. In fact, it may simply be that autumn has come to our soul and our businesses.

Far from being the harbinger of ill fortune, autumn prompts us to gather in the last fruits of summer and to prepare for the dark work of hibernation and renewal. It is time to slow down, to pull back, to change course at the very moment that the world around us cries: “Way to go! Do it again! Don’t change a thing!”

Just as the squash in my garden produces blossoms that cannot possibly mature before winter kills the vine, so our minds continue to generate new ideas and projects in spite of dwindling resources. All the while Spirit whispers, “Slow down.”

When we resist the bitter sweetness of autumn, we live as though fall were a problem and spring the solution. This reduces our capacity to notice and respond to the unique opportunities and challenges of the darker seasons. When spring does arrive, we are exhausted from railing against the winter (and we may become drunk on the sun).

How different it is to know that when passion, conviction, and stamina are waning, there may be nothing amiss. It is only autumn, come to remind us to enjoy the harvest and prepare for winter.

How do we do this? First, we must allow room for the complex mood of the season by savoring both celebration and loss. We name and acknowledge the fruits of the past season, even as we embrace the possibility that our old way of working is passing away.

Fall is a time of completion, a time to pick up the pieces. Collect monies owed; pay the bills. Organize files; finish reports; remove clutter. Trim expenses so that your world can be sustained on a leaner, wintertime cash flow.

Just as it is folly to plant corn out of season, so we will be cautious about making new commitments or starting new projects. Our just-past successes will likely throw off the seeds of many more new ventures than we can possibly support, so we will wisely collect these seeds for planting at a more auspicious time.

A gardener protects and nourishes the topsoil by planting cover crops or applying mulch. We invest time in training to develop the underlying skills that will be needed when spring and summer roll around.

Success (we are often told) is a function of setting goals, defining objectives, taking action, measuring progress, refining your choices, and repeating. While true in part, this approach pretends that spring and summer make a year. It suggests that you can plant a garden in mid-winter if only you use enough fertilizer.

Every gardener knows better. To every thing there is a season, and planting out of season is folly. Learn to recognize the arrival of autumn and to make the most of the turning seasons. This is how to be ready when spring returns.

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Comments

I'm practicing checking my email in the afternoon instead of letting it consume mornings when I'm more productive. So It's a pleasure reading your Seasons of Success now that it is getting dark.

I'd worked two days writing and rewriting a "cold call' email to Garden Design magazine, asking them to consider a story on my new sculpture series. Finally sent it out and noticed my anxiety was up. Instead of taking on the next desk item , I went out to do a couple of hours of fall clean up in the garden. Cleaning up, raking, weeding, and building a trellis put me in a much better frame of mind. Reading "Fall in not the problem, spring is not the solution" made me laugh. So true, and so easy to forget
when I'm not in the garden.
Thanks, Patrick

Posted by: Patrick Gracewood at November 4, 2008 4:39 PM

Molly,
You've raised my spirits with this article. I also had a great tomato crop this year (both in business and in the garden) but here I am fretting about the next few months ahead instead of putting it in the perspective of the entire year's cycle. The missing ingredient for me lately has been remaining confident in the fundamentals of my business and the value of my service. However, based on last night's election results, I'm feeling much more optimistic about things now and in the future.

Thanks again for your insights and your beautifully written article.

Posted by: Amy Gray at November 5, 2008 5:17 PM

You hit the nail right on the head Molly. I've given this subject a lot of thought. It used to be that I would resist Autumn because it felt like everything around me was dying and drying up. Hard times can feel like that too. I sometimes forget that these temporary states can create great potential for positive growth.

Just like plants in the Fall we can pull energy inward to nourish the growth that will come outward when it is ready. I even created an illustration and verse to help me remember this. You can see Goddess of Autumn Abundance here - http://www.faerymed.com/aut

Thanks Molly! Happy Autumn!

Kristen

http://www.KristenSchwartz.com
http://www.FaeryMedicine.com

Posted by: Kristen Schwartz at November 5, 2008 5:22 PM

Loved this article Molly. Having spent the last two hours having a prolonged afternoon nap, my tendecy to feel "unfruitful" was blown away by your words. It's really all about trust, we're simply co-workers in something far greater than our busy little plans. Letting go is indeed as necessary as activity at the right time.

Thanks.

Posted by: John Devitt at November 7, 2008 9:19 AM

Thank you, Amy and Patrick.

Patrick, I have to say that "Fall is not the problem, spring is not the solution" made me laugh, also, when I reread it. And thank God for physical tasks. Raking leaves or scrubbing the sink has saved me from myself often.

Amy, I have also been questioning the value of my services lately. How date I market my work to people who are anxious about the economy? Here is where support is so important. Friends and colleagues reflect back to me - as you do - where to real value lies.

Posted by: Molly Gordon at November 9, 2008 10:34 AM

this is good support for the plan i've laid out for this season regarding my own enterprise. i have lots of studying (of your materials!!) and organizing to do. Things that just take time and must be done. After you suggested i give my business some space to grow (i.e. look for income opptys elsewhere if i needed to) i decided to do just that - and have been. It's been a completely new experience, however, and I"m feeling good about it. At the same time, it's enabling me to do the Fall work that I need to do to for my own enterprise, even while I"m working with a couple of clients and preparing for projects in January

Posted by: Jady Montgomery at November 9, 2008 4:40 PM

Hi Molly - This post/article really struck home. I've been talking with peers, colleagues and clients about how I'm not working to increase my business now. What I'm doing is getting ready for Spring. I loved your analogy of the garden, harvest, winter and spring. It makes sense. In so many other established industries, you have an idea of the ebbs and flows of a business. When you are self employed you tend to take it personally rather than sit back and understand the cycle.

I'm going to put some of the creative "seeds" away for now rather than try to act on them as you talked about. There will be a time for them and when there is I'll be ready.

Posted by: Jen Vondenbrink at November 11, 2008 4:06 AM

Patrick, thank you for the vivid illustration of this metaphor. And good luck with your submission.

My own anxiety level (the bubble-ator) increases when I send out a proposal or create a new offer. And physical activity is a lovely way to redirect that energy into something productive and creative. It gets my attention off my thought-loop and on to what I am making: a pile of leaves, a pot of soup, a clean floor.

And John, I well know the fruitfulness of the nap. ;)

Kathleen Norris's book Acedia & Me has been particularly helpful with regard to discerning the difference between turning away from life and renewal. I, for one, can get the two confused. http://www.powells.com/partner/29611/biblio/9781594489969

Jady, I love that you are using this year to incubate the seeds for the future. That is wise and so effective. I look forward to hearing more about how you are tending the garden!

And Jen, thank you for posting. Your comment points to the many ways we tend a garden: sometimes adding water, light, and nourishment; sometimes letting the beds lie fallow and rest.

Posted by: Molly Gordon at November 11, 2008 7:50 AM

Oops! I missed your comment, Kristen. Thank you for sharing your art!

Posted by: Molly Gordon at November 11, 2008 7:58 AM