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He dislikes it so much that he will travel to the sun during those months to avoid it. His favourite time is the spring; the daffodils and the crocuses bring him a feeling of joy, the winter is finally bloody over.
Pat is very efficient at work. He is inclusive, popular and works well with everyone. His favourite tool to use in work is “the Spreadsheet” as he likes to call it and he has one for everything, even outside of work. He dot’s all the I’s and crosses all the T’s, methodical in his approach he is known for being a details kind of guy.
He loves nothing more than to be busy and his favourite time is in the planning stages (spring) of a project. He is great at seeing the bigger picture and being part of a team all with a common goal. His least favourite part is when the project is over and he has nothing to do, this makes him uneasy and stressed as he likes to know what’s coming next. He dislikes the in-between so much that often he will go seeking work to keep him busy, but often times these projects are a waste of time. That doesn’t matter to Pat as he just wants to be kept occupied.
Pat is a winter-aphobe. He doesn’t like to be idle and sees no value in doing nothing. However, there is so much value in Winter that he doesn’t see. We sit down together to discuss.
You’re not going to change my mind, I don’t like winter. He says, while crossing his arms.
I’m not trying to change your mind, I’m just going to show you what the Celtic wheel says about winter, can you be open to that information? Afterwards you might or might not discard every nugget but can you be open between now and then?
Ok, I will. He promises.
Winter teaches us about the value of doing no-thing. (Queue eye roll from Pat). Winter is the phase in which you are invited to rest, recover, reflect and restore?
Reflect? I always heard that was good to do but I never found the time.
This is an essential part of Winter, after all as the famous quote says: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results
Pat perks up, “Oh yes, that sounds familiar, I do have a habit of this. Tell me more”
Ok, great. Well reflection helps us to look back (with gentleness & compassion) by asking empowering questions so that we can learn from each project and bring that with us to the next one. In so doing we see where needs works, what needs to change and what’s already working well, We can’t expect to improve in anything in life if we don’t reflect.
Is that not an opportunity for self judgement and negative dialogue?
Yes, that’s why its has to be empowering questions and not disempowering ones.
For example: What didn’t work so well and how can I improve it next time (empowering question) v’s why am i terrible at this? (disempowering)
Pat understands and this is the first teaching of Winter for him. The next time there was a gap between projects, pat spend the time reflecting and he found he enjoyed the process. In time we will delve deeper into winter for Pat to explore the value of doing nothing and resting, but for now that was enough.
This is just one aspect of the value of working with the celtic wheel and if you’d like to hear more stories like Pat’s you might wish to join me for a free workshop on Wednesday 15th Feb online, 7:30pm GMT – sign up here
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