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I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt something shift in me recently.

For the first couple of weeks of the year, I could feel myself wanting to winter - to rest, to slow down and to decompress under my heated blanket 🙂. A natural response, perhaps, to the depth of winter and the pace of the year just gone.

But this week something feels different. I feel lighter and more energetic.

If I were to reach for a nature-based analogy, it feels like the seeds beneath the surface of my life are beginning to stir. They’re not fully visible yet but it feels like they're preparing to emerge.

That feeling found its way into a LinkedIn post I shared last week, where I wrote about bamboo. For the first five years of its life, some bamboo grows almost entirely underground, developing an extensive root system. Then, once it breaks through the soil, it can grow up to a metre in a single day.

I often remind myself of this when I start wondering whether I’m doing ‘enough’ in growing my business. It’s so easy to compare ourselves to others but we all grow at different speeds and at different times. When it feels like nothing is happening, it’s often because something important is just below the surface, strengthening the roots.

That truth can feel at odds with modern life. And it’s one of the challenges of social media. We see the outcomes, the launches and the successes but not the years of learning, uncertainty, failed experiments or self doubt that usually sit behind them.

What looks like an overnight success is almost always the result of long, unseen gestation. But that story is harder to market as it’s less glossy.

One of my most treasured possessions is one of my mum’s notebooks. She was a deep thinker and I often wish she were still here so I could hear her reflections on the world as it is now. The closest thing I have to that is a small book I found in a box of her paperwork that she titled “Quotations to think about sometimes”.

Her handwriting fills the pages. And in it, I glimpse her beliefs, her perspectives and her hopes for the future.

When I opened it this week, the very first page felt uncannily relevant to everything I’ve just shared. So I wanted to pass it on to you too.

The top quote about the place of nature is from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

It comes from his 1860 essay Education, where he argues that real learning doesn’t happen through force, haste or instruction alone but through attention, receptivity and time. He believed education (and growth more broadly) should unfold in harmony with our natural development, rather than being rushed towards outcomes.

For Emerson, nature wasn’t just scenery or ecology. It was an organising intelligence, a moral/spiritual teacher and a model for how truth, character and insight emerge. Nothing in nature strains to become what it is. It grows through timing, fit and patience.

That feels like a helpful reminder when we’re trying to learn something new, build a business or develop a skill. The rush to consume information can make us feel mechanistic but we’re not machines, we’re organic.

At this time of year, nature is gently reminding us of the return of light and with it, the return of energy that may have felt absent during the depths of winter.

Nature isn’t slow or soft. It just respects all parts so when the conditions and preparation is correct, the growth can be rapid and abundant. I remember back in my corporate days when we experienced unprecedented success we would say that ‘the stars aligned’. And that was a reflection of something that felt bigger than our own efforts.

So it’s important we zoom out to the wider cycles of the year. SO here’s a reminder of the wheel we created for the natural rhythms of our in person gatherings with The Natural Network. And I’m really excited to say that we have our next event live for the 12th February.

Events & gatherings

Due to the storms at the end of last year, we had to make the difficult decision to cancel our December gathering. But we’re returning in February for our next event, The Tending, with a theme of awakening ideas.

We’ll be back at Four Acre Farm, co-facilitated by me and Kate Forrester (creator and steward of the farm itself).

We’d love you to join us for this unique experience of integrating thoughtful business conversations with deep natural wisdom, grounded in rhythms that feel meaningful rather than forced.

‘The Tending’: The Natural Network series

12th February: 9.15-13.15 at Four Acre Farm. Tickets here

As winter softens and the first signs of growth appear in the land, we too are invited to pause, reflect and plant the seeds for what comes next. Where our earlier events explored gratitude and release, The Tending calls us into action for a season of awakening ideas, clarifying priorities and nurturing connections that will flourish in the months ahead.

You’ll experience:

• Guided reflection and structured exercises to identify what to release and where to focus next

• Strategy and decision-making tools informed by natural cycles and systems thinking

• Nature-based experiences to reconnect with instinct, clarity and creativity

• Small-group conversation with peers navigating change and growth

• A seasonal market-garden lunch to nourish body and mind

• A 30-minute online coaching conversation follow-up with Nick Whitnell to integrate and translate insights into actionable next steps

You’ll leave with:

• Clearer priorities and sharper focus for your business or leadership journey

• Confidence in your strategic direction and the choices ahead

• A sense of renewal and readiness for the winter season

• Fresh energy and creativity sparked by nature and meaningful dialogue

• New connections with like-minded peers seeking purpose and practicality

As an email subscriber, please use the code Naturalnetwork20 for a £20 discount. We’d love to see you there.

If you’re currently trying to find your flow, perhaps it helps to remember that there is time. Sustainable growth doesn’t respond well to pressure but it thrives with patience.

This week, you might take a moment to reflect on the environments, experiences or communities that have helped you grow in the past - a favourite team, a mentor, a place where you felt supported or even a moment from childhood. What conditions allowed you to feel confident, curious and able to stretch?

Once you’ve reflected, consider how you might recreate even a small part of that environment now. What could you tend to, nourish or protect in your life, your work, your projects or yourself to allow growth to emerge naturally?

Sometimes just noticing is the first step to giving your roots the space they need to flourish.

With compassion and curiosity,

Nick

Well that’s it for another week. But we don’t have to stop there.

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