Receiving the harvest

There is a point in every season of growth when the work begins to show.

We spend so much of the year focused on what needs our attention next. We set goals, make decisions, adjust our plans, solve problems, and keep moving. Especially in our careers, it can become second nature to look ahead before we have fully acknowledged what has already taken root.

August offers a good opportunity to do something different: notice the harvest.

What have you been cultivating this year that is beginning to produce results? Where are you experiencing greater ease, clarity, opportunity, confidence, connection, or momentum? What is working now that perhaps was not working six months or a year ago?

Sometimes abundance arrives as the opportunity you hoped for. Sometimes it is financial or professional growth: a new client, greater recognition, a successful project, or an unexpected invitation. Sometimes, the bounty even arrives in a way that brings with it a bit of surprise and delight.

It might be having better boundaries than you did last year. It might be trusting yourself more quickly when a decision needs to be made. Perhaps you have become more selective about where you spend your time and energy. Maybe you have finally stopped trying to make something work that simply wasn’t right for you. These are forms of abundance, too.

Let Yourself Receive

For capable, accomplished people, receiving can be difficult. We are accustomed to producing. We know how to work, contribute, organize, plan, lead, support, and make things happen. When something goes well, we may enjoy it briefly before turning our attention toward the next responsibility.

There is, however, so much value in actually receiving what you have worked to create. Receiving means allowing yourself to recognize that your effort mattered. It means acknowledging that your decisions mattered. Those difficult conversations mattered. The course corrections you made…those mattered, too. The days when you kept going mattered; and so did the days when you wisely decided to stop, reconsider, and move in another direction.

You do not have to minimize what is going well simply because there is still more you want to accomplish.

You can appreciate the harvest while continuing to cultivate the field.

Remember Those Who Helped Till the Soil

Very little that we accomplish happens entirely on our own. Someone may have encouraged you when an idea was still fragile. Someone made an introduction, shared useful advice, recommended you for an opportunity, listened while you worked through a difficult decision, or simply reminded you of your capabilities at exactly the right moment.

There are also people whose contributions may have been less visible. Maybe it was a colleague who quietly made your work easier. How about that one friend who gave you room to breathe? Can you be appreciative of a mentor who offered perspective years ago that you still use today? What about those who supported you through a demanding season?

Part of appreciating abundance is remembering the people who helped till the soil. This doesn’t diminish your own effort. Quite the opposite. It gives you a more complete picture of how growth actually happens.

Take a moment this month to think about the people who have contributed to what is thriving in your life and career today. And when it feels appropriate, tell them.

Make Room for More

A harvest isn’t simply the end result of what was planted. It also provides ample fruit for what comes next. Abundance does not require us to constantly chase more. Sometimes it asks us to recognize what is already working and give it the conditions to continue.

That may mean protecting a successful habit. It may mean strengthening an important professional relationship. It may mean continuing to make space for work that feels meaningful. May you continue to say ‘yes’ to those opportunities that build naturally on what you have already created.

For Your Consideration

As you move through August, consider where you can see evidence of your own harvest. What has grown because you consistently gave it attention? What opportunity, relationship, habit, or decision is producing benefits now? What are you receiving that you might have overlooked because you were already focused on what comes next?

Then consider the people who helped prepare the ground. Who encouraged you, supported you, opened a door, offered advice, challenged your thinking, or made your path a little easier?

Finally, ask yourself: What is thriving in my life right now, and what would help it continue to thrive? You don’t need to reinvent everything for the remainder of the year. You may simply need to recognize what is already bearing fruit and continue tending it well.

Before this month gets away from you, take a few minutes to name your harvest.

Write down three things you are grateful to be receiving in your life or career right now. Then name three people who, in some way, helped you till the soil along the way.Reach out to at least one of them and say thank you. And then give yourself a little credit, too.

You have been cultivating this life all year. Some of what you planted is beginning to bloom, some is still growing beneath the surface, and some may have taught you what you no longer want to grow.

For now, appreciate what is already here. Receive it. Enjoy it. And keep tending what you desire to grow.

Okay, your turn:

Where in your life and career are you seeing the fruits of your labor?

I invite you to share your observations, feelings, and experiences by leaving a Reply in the Comments section, below. Soul-to-soul!

© 2026 Lori A. Noonan. All Rights Reserved.