Seasons Change. Are You Ready To Change With Them?

For the first ten years of my schooling, I attended a Catholic school. Like many children who grow up in that environment, I became surprisingly familiar with the Bible. Time has blurred many of those lessons, but there are certain passages that have stayed with me throughout my life.

One of them comes from Ecclesiastes 3.

"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."

It's one of those verses that seems almost too simple when you're young. It sounds poetic, comforting even, but it isn't until life begins throwing unexpected seasons your way that you start to understand what it really means.

As I write this, it is winter in Johannesburg.

The mornings are cold enough to make getting out of bed feel like a negotiation, while the afternoons remind you that spring is quietly waiting in the wings. In another couple of months, the trees will begin to change. The air will soften. Everything around us will prepare for a new season without questioning whether it is ready.

Nature never argues with change.

People do.

Lately, I've realised that many of us are standing on the edge of our own changing seasons:

• Some are changing careers.

• Some are ending relationships.

• Some are quietly rebuilding themselves after circumstances completely outside of their control.

• Others are carrying around ideas that have lived in notebooks for years—businesses they want to start, books they want to write, conversations they know they need to have—but fear has convinced them that "someday" is safer than today.

I know that feeling.

There have been more times than I care to admit when I've questioned whether I was ready to take the next step. Whether people would judge me. Whether I knew enough. Whether I would fail publicly.

The funny thing about fear is that it rarely tells us to stop.

It simply convinces us to wait.

Wait until you have more experience.

Wait until you have more money.

Wait until you're more confident.

Wait until someone gives you permission.

But seasons don't wait.

The trees don't cling desperately to last year's leaves because they're afraid of what winter might bring. Spring doesn't ask whether anyone is ready for it before it arrives.

Change happens regardless.

The only question is whether we're willing to move with it.

I've come to realise that many of the biggest regrets in life aren't the things we attempted that didn't work out.

They're the things we never gave ourselves permission to try.

Perhaps that's why Ecclesiastes has stayed with me all these years. It isn't simply telling us that life has different seasons. It's reminding us that every season has a purpose—even the uncomfortable ones:

• Growth requires change.

• Change requires courage.

• And courage usually arrives only after we've taken the first step.

So if you've been waiting for the perfect moment to start the business, publish the blog, apply for the job, or become the person you've quietly hoped you could be...

Perhaps this is your season.

Not because everything is perfect.

But because life rarely waits for perfect.

Sometimes the season changes first.

We simply have to decide whether we're willing to change with it.

Speaking of change

For the longest time, I have been meaning to put up my rate card - which I did yesterday. Here is the link to it. Have a look at it and I would really appreciate it if you could share it with your friends and colleagues who might be in need of my services.