QUIET ON PURPOSE:
Designing the Season You Need
A Message from Leslie Sturgeon
Founder and Visionary, Women Inspiring Women
There is nothing quite like summer in New England.
We wait months for it. We watch the last stubborn piles of snow disappear. We notice the first boats being uncovered, the docks returning to the water, beach chairs being taken out of storage and everything slowly coming alive again. Then, almost overnight, the lakes and rivers are glistening, the days stretch longer and the whole area seems to exhale. And, of course, there is my pool. Anyone who knows me knows that my pool is not simply a place to swim. It is my happy place, my thinking place and occasionally my floating office.
Some of my happiest memories are from my youth when I lived on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in Moultonborough, NH. There was something about being near the water—the beauty, the sounds, the rhythm and the sense of possibility—that made life feel a little more spacious. Perhaps that is why I have always felt protective of summer. It is so beautiful here, and so brief.
This year, I didn’t want to reach September and wonder where it had gone. I didn’t want summer to become another season filled by default with work, obligations and the constant pressure to keep producing and “performing.”
I wanted to experience it and bask in gratitude.
So I made a conscious decision to design my summer differently.
I gave the season a purpose
We are accustomed to planning our days around appointments, deadlines and responsibilities. We are less accustomed to asking:
What do I need from this season of my life?
This summer, I needed more space.
Space to enjoy where I live.
Space to spend time with people I care about or enjoy pure solitude.
Space to think without immediately turning every thought into a project.
Space to consider what I want personally and professionally.
Space to dream again.
That did not mean I stopped working or stepped away from every responsibility. Life rarely divides itself that neatly. It meant I stopped expecting this season to look like every other one. I allowed summer to have a different rhythm and a different job.
Rest and reflection are not the same as doing nothing
We often recognize the value of visible activity more easily than the value of quiet preparation. We can point to the event we hosted, the project we completed, the goal we reached or the thing we launched. It is harder to measure what happens when we give ourselves room to think. But quiet seasons are not empty seasons. Sometimes they are when we finally hear the thoughts that have been buried beneath the noise.
What is still meaningful to me?
What have I outgrown?
What am I doing simply because I have always done it?
What do I want more of?
What might be possible if I stopped rushing into the next thing and gave myself permission to imagine it first?
Those questions do not always produce immediate answers. They do, however, create the conditions for better ones.
Design does not mean control
When I say I “designed” my summer, I don’t mean that every day unfolded according to a beautiful master plan and 47-page PDF. It didn’t. There were still responsibilities, interruptions, changing plans and days that looked nothing like I expected. Designing a season is not about controlling every moment.
It is about deciding what matters before everything else decides for you.
It can mean protecting a few mornings each week. Saying no to something that belongs in another season. Leaving open space on the calendar. Choosing one priority instead of seven. Spending more time outside. Reconnecting with people or disconnecting. Beginning something—or deliberately allowing yourself not to begin it yet.
The design can be simple. The important part is that it is intentional.
Every season does not need to be a producing season
This may be the lesson I needed most.
We live in a culture that encourages us to make every season productive in the same visible way. We are supposed to be building, growing, achieving, announcing and moving forward at all times.
But nature does not work that way, and neither do we.
There are seasons for planting.
Seasons for tending.
Seasons for harvesting.
Seasons for resting.
And seasons for dreaming and designing what comes next.
When we expect all of them to produce the same results, we miss what each one has to offer. My summer was not about disappearing. It was about creating enough quiet to recognize what the next season is asking of me.
And now, I can feel the shift.
A new season for Women Inspiring Women
Women Inspiring Women has been quiet this summer too.
That quiet was not a lack of care, ideas or activity. Behind the scenes, I have been thinking deeply about this community, the women it has brought together and what its next chapter could become.
In May, Women Inspiring Women will celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Twenty years.
It is difficult to capture everything those years have held: the events and conversations, certainly, but also the friendships, collaborations, courageous decisions and unexpected connections that began because women entered a room and allowed themselves to be seen.
As we approach that milestone, I don’t want merely to look backward. I want to honor what we have built by asking what it can make possible next. This upcoming season will include familiar ways of gathering, new conversations and new opportunities for women to connect, grow and be recognized. Some ideas will unfold gradually. Others will surprise you. One has even surprised me – and it feels like a very big leap!
And no, I am not going to reveal all of them today. I am practicing restraint, which may be my greatest personal-development achievement of the summer. For now, I simply want you to know that a new season is beginning—and I am genuinely excited to step back into the conversation with you.
What does your next season need from you?
As summer begins to give way to fall, perhaps this is a good moment to pause before allowing the next few months to fill themselves. Ask yourself:
- What do I need from this season?
- How do I want it to feel?
- What deserves my energy and attention?
- What am I ready to begin?
- What am I willing to set down?
- Where do I need more room to think, connect, create or rest?
- What might become possible if I designed this season intentionally?
- What would bring me joy?
You do not need a color-coded plan, a PDF or a complete reinvention of your life. Perhaps you simply need to choose three words for the season ahead. Protect one hour a week for something important. Resume a relationship or practice you have missed. Say no to one obligation that no longer fits. Give an idea enough room to become clearer before demanding that it become productive.
The seasons will change whether we participate in that change intentionally or not. This fall, I want to participate. I am entering a season of dreaming and designing—but also one of reconnecting, creating and bringing some of those dreams into the world. I hope you will be part of it.
And I would love to know:
What do you need from your next season—and what could you do now to begin designing it?
With gratitude for the season that was—and excitement for the one ahead,
Leslie
ABOUT LESLIE STURGEON
Leslie Sturgeon is the spirited founder of Women Inspiring Women, and has been described as a reformed shy girl, a serial entrepreneur, a tireless leader of women in New Hampshire, a crazy dog lover and as someone who tackles life’s challenges head on with a positive attitude. She has spent her life learning about herself, taking massive action outside of her comfort zone and lived to talk about it. Leslie has “been there” and continues to transform into the best version of herself right along side you. She lives life without regret while embracing today and overflowing with excitement about what is yet to come. Leslie also likes girl talk and chocolate and laughing so hard she snorts or pees (sometimes both simultaneously).
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