The transition from summer to fall is truly a beautiful time of year. I love seeing the change of seasons as the trees start changing colour from green to orange and red, the weather starts getting cooler, birds start migrating south and mammals start preparing for the coming winter.

The transition was, traditionally, a time of preparation for indigenous cultures as they had to prepare for the upcoming winter with adequate shelter, clothing and food stores. This is no longer a concern in modern times as most of us live in houses or apartments that protect us year round and can easily purchase whatever clothing or food we need at any time.

However, this time can and should be a time for reflection over the previous season to see where we are in our life journey. What goals did we set for ourselves and what did we accomplish? Where did we fall short and why? Has there been a change in our priorities?

This is especially true now, more than ever, as we are at the tail end of the COVID 19 pandemic and it has been one of the most challenging years many people have had to face.

In order to be on the path to fulfillment there are seven major areas of life that must be engaged in most of the time. These are:

1. Health and fitness.
2. Personal and intellectual development, including any formal education such as university, college and postgraduate education, workshops and seminars, podcasts you listen to and books you read and any languages you are learning.
3. Relationships and social network which includes your relationship to your significant other, your family and close friends and your sphere of social influence.
4. Career and higher calling which may not be the same. What is you greater reason for being here on the planet and are you on the road to working towards your higher calling? If your career is not in alignment with your greater calling what steps can you take to move closer to this?
5. Emotional and spiritual development which includes releasing emotional blocks and psychological fears, religious practice, prayer, meditation, spending time in nature and in contemplation and anything you do to rejuvenate yourself from within.
6. Financial abundance including active and passive income sources, investments, real estate and what value you can bring to the market in the form of products, services, skills and talents that people are willing to pay you for. This may be linked to your higher calling.
7. Your contribution to society through charity, volunteer work and any way in which you help to improve the lives of others whether they are family, friends, acquaintances, neighbours, strangers, communities, cities, whole countries or the world.

At this time as we transition from summer to fall, look over the last 3 months at each of these areas of your life. Where have you set goals? Where do you need to set goals? In the areas that you have set goals, what progress have you made towards your goals? Where have you fallen short? What do you need to do in order to catch up with your goals? Where in your life do you need to course correct to be on your path to fulfillment.

This process will be different for everyone but is absolutely crucial for personal growth and true fulfillment. In fact, I encourage everyone to do this with every change of season much like a corporation does a quarterly review to see if it has been reaching its profit goals and satisfying its customers. If it has not then the corporate CEO and Board of Directors have to take a good, hard look at where they have fallen short and what needs to change to fulfill the company's greater mission and ensure its profit.

So I encourage you to take this opportunity, as we transition from summer to fall, to take a good, hard look at all the above areas of your life to see where in what areas you are on track and in what areas you need to make changes to get back on track. Journal on your reflections which will help ensure that you take the actions that are necessary to stay on the path of personal growth and fulfillment and make the most of the last three months of this year.

Nauman Naeem MD