Resources on The Fall

A selection of articles, books, and podcasts we have included based on the wisdom of the fall. This season is a time to evaluate our personal harvest and decide if we see it as abundant or scarce, a time to get organized and “gather our nuts” for the quieter season ahead, a chance to get courageous and reinvent ourselves like the leaves on a fall tree, and an opportunity to recognize the greatest teachers in our lives — whether our teachers are ourselves, other people, nostalgic memories or experiences.

1. Preparing for the season

From rutting deer to lady bugs to a hibernating bird, read here to learn more about how various creatures use the fall to prepare for the colder months ahead.

2. Designing your life

Watch this TED talk to learn five steps to help you design the life you want. The speaker, Bill Burnett, is also the co-author of Designing Your Life, which you can order here.

“A coherent life is one lived in such a way that you can clearly connect the dots between three things: who you are, what you believe, what you are doing.”

“A well-designed life is a life that is generative — it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of surprise. You get out of it more than you put in. There is a lot more than ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ in a well-designed life.”

– Bill Burnett

3. Doubling down on love

The fall can create immense nostalgia and a longing to belong. It can bring us back to those first day of school nerves that are mostly driven by a desire to find our place. So what happens when we feel disconnected from our community and what can we do about it?

In this article, Brene Brown argues we are living in a loveless society that leaves many of us feeling frozen, angry, overwhelmed — you name it. She makes a case for revisiting your “love ethic” to courageously face the injustices you come across. She asks us to “live love to give love.”

4. Being intentional with your time

The feeling of abundance or scarcity is often driven by time. When we have the spaciousness to reflect, it seems easier to see life as abundant vs. when we are in a time crunch when there never seems to be enough — enough time with our loved ones, enough space for ourselves, just… enough. Time seems to be one of our most precious resources these days. Learning how to use it wisely is a key to happiness and success according to this article.

How can you use the beginning of each season as a significant marker of time in your life? What other beginnings are important to note right now?

“People often look at projects as linear, meaning that the best way to get them done is to make incremental progress over time. But life doesn’t work like that, in part because we give special attention to beginnings, middle periods, and endings.

Consider beginnings: A false start can be hard to overcome—so, Pink argues, we should pay attention to start off right. He suggests tying new projects to a marker of time, like the first of the month or the beginning of fall, to give them added significance; or finding other ways to call attention to a beginning.”

– Jill Suttie

5. Leveraging the past

From the resurgence of 80’s and 90’s tv and fashion to #tbt posts, nostalgia seems to be popping up everywhere these days. Why is that potentially a good thing? Recalling a positive memory can support us through times of uncertainty or change, help remind us who we are, bring us closer to other people, and can help us recover from stress more efficiently. This article walks us through the latest science around the impact of nostalgia on our brains.

“[Nostalgia] provides a comparison of yourself with yourself. Who were you back then? Who are you now? Watching something can trigger what you were thinking and feeling back then. Nostalgia allows us to monitor and keep track of our identities.”

– Krystine Batcho