Are you in tune with your life season?

“Be aware of what is available to you right now in terms of energy, time and resources and consider how you could use what you have to support the life that you currently have,” she says.

“A lot of people never upgrade their self-identity when they shift into a new season.”

So if a newborn is keeping you up all night, leaning into this chapter might mean temporarily shelving half-marathon training or dialling back the socialising for a spell. Or if you’ve just started a demanding new job, this chapter might benefit from hunkering down and un-following your Mediterranean-trotting mates.

“Recognise that stages are temporary. The kids won’t always be as demanding, your income might fluctuate by life season,” Jung says. “We’re all going through our own separate cycles and to compare ourselves to others is just a recipe for disaster and shame.”

Jung says there’s value in reflecting on past seasons and considering the contribution they’ve made to your current life.

“Sometimes you almost have to ‘break up’ with that old version of yourself so that you are mentally and emotionally able to catch up with what’s happening around you,” she says.

“Trust that each season brings its own lessons, gifts and challenges. It’s not better or worse – it’s just different, and you unveil a new layer of yourself each time.”

Jung believes our capacity can also fluctuate throughout each year. “I learn a lot by observing nature – plants are not in bloom all the time, and animals don’t hunt and mate year-round. There’s some seasonality to it, based on hormonal flows and access to resources like water and sun,” she says.

“For me, I’ve noticed the colder seasons are a time for slowing down and reflecting, and I tend to cut down on work hours. As spring comes, there’s a surge of creative energy for working on major projects and socialising.”

Whether it’s bookmarking a bucket-list adventure for five years’ time or plotting a career move to tackle when you have more capacity, Mitchell says it can be comforting to consider the coming chapters when you’re feeling a bit stuck.

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“With clients I coach we work on outlines of chapters in advance so we can start mapping out a general direction [so they] can see that the chapter that they are in is not forever,” she says.

And when you’re in a time-constricted life season, she makes the case for tiny habits to keep your wellbeing ticking.

“I love the work of behavioural scientist BJ Fogg who talks about [introducing] tiny habits like reading one page of your novel every night, walking around one block or doing one push-up [attached to] habits you already do each day,” she says.

“When we try and get everything done without allowing for the season in our life, we can reach burnout.”

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