Seasonal living
How can we optimize our life based on seasons?
I was talking last week about slow travel and how happy I am that I again have the opportunity to settle for 1 month in a place! And not just in any place, I’m staying at Neighborhood Zero in Austin, TX this month!
Right now, it's a big deal for me to settle down for a month because I've been traveling and moving so much in the last 2 months. It's really not optimal to think all the time about where I'm going to live, how I'm going to get there, what the currency is, and how much it's going to cost me, all while trying to focus on work.
A lot of entrepreneurs and productive people say they only have plain black shirts so they don't have to think about what to wear because we can make so many decisions in a day that it's best to leave room for the more important decisions. Figuring out where you're going to stay each week is even more stressful than choosing your clothes because it takes up so much more time and energy.
But I'm not complaining. I like the concept of living our lives in seasons. For the past 3 months, my season has been all about travel and it has been full of new experiences, new places, people and cultures. It wasn't so much a productive season and the focus was on leisure, adventure and learning about other cultures. I really enjoyed that, but now it's time to start a new season.
While this travel season has many benefits (visiting new countries, making new friends, learning new languages, trying new food, seeing the beauties of this world, etc.), it also has its downsides. I didn't work as much on the things I care about, I didn't have a morning routine, I slept less, and I generally lived unhealthier than I had in the past two years. All of this also led to me feeling worse mentally and physically than I'm used to.
I wouldn't say it was critical, I just realized very quickly that I didn't feel as good as I should. I didn't have as much energy as I should have. I don't regret it - it was fun and I'd do it again. It's just not something I would do on an ongoing basis. That's why we have seasons.
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Mostly we think of designing our lives according to nature’s seasons:
Winter = restore
Spring = create
Summer = grow
Fall = achieve
There are other ways how we can look at seasons as well. Some time ago I listened to an interview with Cal Newport, the best-selling author, and he talked about how he is a big believer in seasonality based on our productivity and the work we want to achieve: "busy and not busy days; busy and not busy weeks; busy and not busy months." As knowledge workers, he says, we should include seasonal reflections in our lives.
For example, he's a professor and his schedule is based on semesters of the academic school year. He has two major breaks in the summer and in December. "In the summer, he takes the full two months off from his academic work. Then, after final exams in early to mid-December, he takes one day off a week - with no meetings, phone calls or podcast recordings."
I believe that based on our desired lifestyle in certain seasons, we could also choose the communities and the people we want to spend time with. Each community would focus on a particular theme. For example:
Productivity
Health and well being
Learning
Play
When working, surround yourself with people more successful than you. When playing, surround yourself with people happier than you. - Naval Ravikant
Imagine that you could switch between different communities depending on the season. In each season, you choose the right environment and the right people to surround yourself with. The results you achieve depend largely on the community you're in and the people you surround yourself with.
Depending on what season you're in, you should choose the people around you accordingly. The prompts we get from our closest environment determine what we do and how we do it. That's why I'm so excited to be staying at Cabin this month.
They’re still accepting aplications for other months, so you’re welcome to apply as well - so far I cannot recommend it enough! You can apply here.
As soon as I got here, I resumed my old morning routine (meditation, journaling, cold showers, exercise, and reading books) and improved my eating habits. The improvement in my mental and physical state is obvious. It's also because of the way the culture is in the Cabin community. If you see everyone working in the morning, you'll work. If people are going for walks and exercising, you'll too. Not to mention the Cabin's library and the sauna!
Let's see then what the new season with new prompts brings to my life.
Best newsletter so far 💪💪🤗