A Season for Planning

[collingwest]

Covered Bridge in Stone Mountain, GA
Credit: Paul Brennan via Pixabay

Today is October 1, the start of Fourth Quarter 2021; it’s fall in the Northern Hemisphere here in the Atlanta Metro area, this means that the days are warm but not hot; and the nights are cool but not cold. It’s a time of year when many of us roll our eyes as we discover that we need to use both the heating and air conditioning in our houses.

The weather is similar where I grew up, in Eastern North Carolina; as a result I have the tendency of most Southerners to consider anything below 50°F to be cold. But my favorite season is still fall, because it’s a time when activities start again. Over the summer, it often becomes far too hot and humid for all-day outdoor activities, and the nights give little relief. In the fall, though, it’s a good time to get outside.

In addition, fall is often the time when we are able to harvest the fruits of our labor, which brings joy regardless of the type of harvest it might be. This year, my harvest is not physical as I wasn’t able to keep up the garden over the summer. But I can still see harvest season in the length of the days, in the increased activity of my parish and the whole Church, and in my work. I can also see it in the many celebrations around me that started as traditions meant to give thanks for another good growing season.

Fall is also a time for thinking and planning about the seasons just ahead; this is most obvious for children who have just started back to school, but it exists elsewhere too. For employee benefits professionals like me, fall is open enrollment season: when we plan out and then implement the next year’s strategy for our clients and/or our employees. I’ve been working on my own open enrollment duties since mid-August when I developed the project plan.

Since it’s a season of planning, fall is also a season that’s all about priorities. This past July, I realized that mine had gotten rather out of order, and that both my personal and professional lives were suffering as a result. Since the professional life was the more pressing issue, I took care of that first. At the same time, though, I knew that the personal couldn’t be neglected in favor of the professional, especially since I don’t draw thick lines between the two.

The next step after planning, of course, is carrying out those plans: implementation and action. That’s why today is such a good day for re-starting my blog. I re-started my personal journal in mid-July, so I’ve already begun building up the habit of writing every day. Now, it’s time to re-start the public blog.

Right now, I’m starting with posts on Tuesdays and Fridays, but eventually I expect to be putting up posts every day. These first few entries will be about the blog itself: introducing it (and me!) to the world at large. From there, I have plans for several different topics. Keep watching this space to learn more!

Originally posted at https://collingwest.blog/2021/a-season-for-planning/.