Fall color has a way of stopping you in your tracks. The Japanese maples at our house have been absolutely glowing, and a photo of our grandpup Kona this week captured the moment perfectly. The trees are giving us their final burst of color, a kind of crescendo after a full year of creating leaves, fruit, and, in some cases, nuts. It is nature’s reminder that every good cycle has a closing chapter, and that chapter can be beautiful.
As I soak this in, I find myself thinking about how fall helps us prepare for what comes next. The leaves may be dropping, but the work beneath the soil is just beginning. Roots strengthen, and seeds that have dropped to the ground are being conditioned for the upcoming spring season to begin another miraculous cycle of life (never get tired of that miracle of life yielding new life).
This rhythm is showing up in my own planning. Two seed catalogs arrived this week, and I will be spending some time over Thanksgiving dreaming about Iron Mountain Organics’ 2026 season. These catalogs are like possibilities in printed form. They remind me that next year’s harvest begins with the choices we make today.
The same is true at ThreeWill. We are closing out the year with intention, especially as we lean into a few big Rocks (our 90-day world in EOS). One of the more significant rocks is our transition to a new Professional Services Automation tool. We went from 10 years of tracking time in spreadsheets to our first PSA tool, and almost 15 years later, we are moving to Ruddr. I never thought I would be excited to talk about time revenue projections, resource allocation, and real-time margin analysis, but this upgrade will help us run our delivery in a much more informed and confident way. Our launch is right around the corner, and I can already see how it will support healthier growth in 2026.
We are also investing deeply in our HCBS Productivity Toolkit. This ecosystem is filled with people doing work that matters, and it deserves thoughtful support. Every asset we create for this toolkit strengthens the foundation we are giving away for free to HCBS (Home and Community-Based) organizations. They can self-implement it or choose to partner with us, but either way, we want to equip them to serve their communities with more clarity, less chaos, and more care.
Fall has a way of reminding us that the year is closing quickly, and that rest is on the horizon. There is still meaningful work to finish before we step into the quiet of the Christmas season, but the energy feels good. Purposeful. Grounded.
So here is a question that fall invites each of us to answer.
What is the one thing you want to accomplish before the end of the year?
I hope this season encourages you to choose something that will make your future self grateful.
This post first appeared on November 21, 2025 in Sowing Success, my weekly LinkedIn newsletter on leadership and organic farming. Read the original on LinkedIn.
