7. Life Settings and Life Seasons

Read week

Last time we started to look at Your Current Circumstances in more detail. We found that Your Current Circumstances consisted of Your Person (with five elements) and Your Surroundings (with seven elements).

Today we are going to check out two more parts of Your Current Circumstances, namely Your Settings and Your Seasons.

Your Seasons

First let us look at different stages of life and consider what life might look like for some people. Let’s call these Your Seasons.

Spring (0-25 years)
- Preschool years, living at home
- School years, living at home
- Gap year, travel
- Tertiary education, leaving home, starting work
Summer (25-50)
- Living with friends / partners / spouses, studying, working
- Starting a family, working
- Your own home, family, career
- Optimistic times – Travel, build house, start business
Autumn (50-75)
- Crisis times – separations, accidents, serious illnesses, unemployment, failure of business, bankruptcy
- Children leaving home
- Death of parents
- Settled homelife, employment, business expansion
- Retirement
Winter (75-100 years)
- Retirement years
- Declining health
- Nursing home
- Death of spouse
- Your own death
- Legacy to children

Here we have considered a complete life from birth to death. This is one way of looking at life. But another way is to look at different parts of our life. May I suggest that life is like a circus consisting of three rings (as they used to do). And may I suggest that these rings represent three different settings.

Your Settings

Here is another way to look at life:

Ring 1 – Education / Work / Social Security (mainly about employment)?
- Ring 1a – Education
  - Preschool
  - School
  - Tertiary Study
- Ring 1b – Work
  - 1st Job
  - 2nd Job
  - Different Jobs
  - Own Business
  - Investments
- Ring 1c – Unemployment & Retirement
  - Unemployment
  - Sell Business
  - Retirement
  - Passive income
Ring 2- Home / Community / Holidays (about people, possessions and experiences)?
- Ring 2a – Home & Car
  - Parent’s home
  - Rented home
  - Your home
  - Car
- Ring 2b – Family and Friends
  - Parents & Family
  - Friends
  - Partner & Children
- Ring 2c – Shopping & Fun Activities
  - Shopping
  - Interest Areas
  - Computer Games
  - Music / Film
  - Sports / Live events
  - Holidays
Ring 3 – Worthy Causes (about making the world a better place)
- School P&C
- Community groups
- Church

Points to Ponder

Describe Your current Season
Describe Your current Settings

Amadeus Education