Identify your current season honestly

Name the season you are actually in — not the one you want to be in or the one others expect.

Why it works

Developmental models (Levinson, Erikson) propose that adults move through qualitatively different periods with different developmental tasks. The central task of spring (roughly early adulthood) is exploration and dreaming; summer is building and committing; autumn is harvesting and deepening; winter is integrating and transmitting. Working against the natural task of a season creates friction that feels like personal failure but is often structural mismatch.

How to do it

1. Read a brief summary of adult developmental stages (Levinson’s "Seasons of a Man’s Life" or Sheehy’s "Passages") and notice which resonates most.
2. Ask: "What does this stage seem to be asking of me?" rather than "What do I wish it would ask?"
3. Note where your actual energy and attention are naturally going — this often tells you more than external markers.
4. Discuss with a trusted person who has known you across stages; their perspective on where you are tends to be less biased than your own.

Evidence

Levinson’s stage model is based on extensive biographical interview research, not a clinical trial. Adult developmental stage theories have clinical and observational support but are frameworks, not laws — individuals vary substantially in timing. (observational)

Stage models are contested as deterministic; they are best used as loose maps rather than strict prescriptions. Levinson’s original work was male and American; generalization requires caution.

Sources

• Levinson et al. (1978), The Seasons of a Man’s Life — biographical interview study

Common mistake

Identifying with the season you aspire to rather than the one you are in, which produces a plan suited to a future self rather than a current one.