I create a new mood board with every new season. Here’s why and how.

A creative personal brand ritual for staying visually aligned, creatively inspired, and strategically clear.

I used to hate winter. Born in late spring, if it were up to me, I’d chase summer all year round. My family would hear my dreaded countdown for the end of daylight saving, as I prepared for the early sunsets and cold nights to set in. Now, I’m almost as excited about winter rolling round as those first signs of spring. 

Animals revolve their lives around the seasons, yet we seem to forget their importance. Each season has a purpose. You thrive when you stop pushing against it and learn to align with it. 

So, as Australia just ticked over into winter, here’s how I rewired my brain to not only embrace any change of season, but to use it to supercharge my goals. 

1. The 12-Week Year Paradigm Shift 

I’ll likely never tire of recommending the book The 12 Week Year by Brian P Moran and Michael Lennginton. This was a life-changing read for me. The book challenges you to change your perception of time. 12 weeks isn’t a quarter, it’s the ‘year’. Rethinking time isn’t such an outrageous idea. Civilisations have been changing calendars for thousands of years. So, why not reimagine your own mental model of time?

The 12 Week Year takes the motivation you feel at the start or end of the year and applies it to the whole year. Instead of the complacency a full (calendar) year can create, it increases your sense of urgency to 12 weeks. 

There are some naturally fitting points for starting a new 12 Week Year, of course. Most obviously January, April, July and October. However, I love overlaying this timing with the change of season too. As they fall in different months, it gives me a reset within the ‘year’. A chance to get settled into a ‘new year’ before really getting my goals into gear. But my seasonal mood boards aren’t all about professional goals.

2. Embrace the season for what it is 

My motivation to rethink the value of seasons didn’t start with the 12 Week Year. It started with the simple insight from a friend. As I complained about the upcoming winter, she said she used to be exactly the same - until she decided to embrace the season for what’s best about it. So simple, but it was only then that I took the time to realise some of my favourite things shine brightest in winter - like my beloved Shiraz wines, favourite soups, a cosy fire, or staying in to play the piano.

Thinking bigger picture, the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:2-3) says best: 

"For everything there is a season,

    a time for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die.

    A time to plant and a time to harvest…"

Not every season is for harvesting. So, what seeds are you sowing in your ‘off season’? Or, if winter is peak season for you, how are you reaping the full rewards of the seeds you so carefully sowed?

3. My motivating mood board method

While I create an annual vision board, my seasonal boards blend the best of mood boards and vision boarding. A vision board is specific. Vision boards are not all for aesthetic appeal. It’s a visual way to tell your brain clearly what you want it to focus on. It engages your Reticular Activating System (RAS) of your brain. Your brain then filters the noise to create greater clarity toward your goals. 

Mood boards foster a feeling, style or atmosphere. I aim to create both. For example, my boards are full of aesthetic photos of seasonal fruit, vegetables and the food perfectly suited to the season. I also refine my personal brand style over each season - deciding what can stay, go or be elevated. 

Now, for me, winter also represents the perfect time to reset professionally before spring blooms. The point is, every season can have its theme and overarching priorities. 

4. Moodboard with Pinterest

For several reasons, I create my seasonal mood boards on Pinterest.

One, it’s more aesthetic and is brimming with beautiful content to get you in the mood for each new season. 

Two, it’s a search engine, so you can get surprisingly very specific with what you’re searching and pin to perfection. 

Three, some things never change. It’s likely your annual vision board will need to be reinvented from scratch each new calendar year. Your mood board is likely an evolving work in progress when that season rolls back around. The same fruits and vegetables that were in season last winter, will be this time too. You likely still crave your favourite seasonal meals. Although, you might be making healthier choices, or your taste might have changed. Each new season, you have a base mood board to start with and remind yourself what you love most about that season. 

5. Timing is everything

In her book, Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin, proposes attaching a new habit to a natural clean slate: 

“Any beginning is a time of special power of habit creation, and at certain times we experience a clean slate. In which circumstances change in a way that makes a fresh start possible - if we’re alert for the opportunity.”

The key is becoming aware of the opportunity. There are more chances for a clean slate than you may initially realise. It doesn’t just need to be a new calendar year, new financial year or new quarter. I use the very first day of the new season to archive last season on Pinterest and bring my new board back to life and start evolving its vision. 

When you learn to move with the seasons, you create exciting new layers to your personal and professional development.