I wrapped September at 2LX:NOLA in New Orleans and went straight to North Carolina to present at the Women in Educational Leadership Symposium at Appalachian State University. Back to back. It was too much, and I knew it was too much while I was doing it.
I came home to Minnesota and the trees had already started to turn. They didn't make an announcement, didn't apologize, didn't even give away a sense that they thought I missed their activity.
Every fall, I see the trees as a metaphor for slowing down, but they are doing something far more specific than resting, and I think we could learn a lot from them.
Fall is the natural world making decisions about how to sustain itself.
Here is what is actually happening out there this month, and what I think it means for those of us who lead.
What the trees are actually doing
1. The leaf does not fall. The tree lets it go.
Before a leaf drops, the tree pulls the chlorophyll and the nutrients back into its trunk and its roots. Then it builds a seal at the base of the stem and releases it. The tree deliberately recovers what it invested before it lets the leaves go.
What if we did the same? Instead of thinking of closing doors, we can assess where we already have deposits we can collect, and then choose to release what is consuming our energy, but is no longer necessary for the season we are in.
2. Next spring is being built right now.
The buds that open in April are formed and sealed before winter. Next year's growth is decided in the fall, in the dark, by trees that look dormant.
As a business owner, I can relate. Just because a season is quiet doesn't mean work isn't being done. It is actually where the work happens, even if there are no pictures on the Gram.
3. The growth moves underground.
In a lot of trees, root growth keeps going after the leaves are gone. Sometimes it speeds up because the canopy has stopped using energy. The tree is not growing less in the fall. It is growing in ways that no one can see.
If you cannot point to what you accomplished this month, consider that you may have been grounding. Growth that is invisible to the naked eye is still growth.
4. We can’t produce at maximum levels every year.
Oak trees have mast years. Some autumns they drop an enormous crop of acorns, and other years almost nothing. The variation allows the tree to stay alive for decades.
A system that produces its absolute maximum every single year is not always a healthy system if it’s resources are being depleted.
Your 2026 does not have to beat your 2025 to have been a good year. I need to say that to myself as much as to others.
5. The most beautiful month is the one where everything is letting go.
October is when the trees are most worth looking at. It is harvest season. It is the feast, the color, the gathering in, the whole community outside taking pictures of leaves that are, technically speaking, dying.
The natural world does not regret the close of a season. It treats it as something to celebrate.
Too often, we think of winding down in negative ways. We even feel guilty for resting. I would gently suggest that is not what the natural world is modeling. Nature’s rest is joyous and well deserved. So is ours.
What I am doing about it
I will not write any of this without telling you that I need to take my own advice.
I am moving past setting intentions to dates placed where my accountability partners can see them. This way, on the days I would not decide well for myself, decisions have already been made.
I am capping what I take on rather than seeing how much will fit. I spent too many years finding out exactly how much will fit, and 0/10, I do not recommend.
And I am building a business that does not require me to be in two places at once, which is harder than building it was in the first place. That work is happening underground right now. You may not be able to see it, but I am counting it anyway.
If you are reading this at the start of fall, carrying more than you have told anyone about, I want to offer you the reframe: you are not behind. You are in October. The tree that looks completely spent is preparing for April.
Let something go this month the way a tree does. Take back what you put in first. Then release it.
Take good care,
Tyneeta
