The moment you’ve finished reading this book, you’ll be able to know whether the years just ahead are good or bad for you, and how long this season will last. You’ll be able thus to act accordingly: if there is a storm on the horizon, you’ll take shelter in time; if sunny days loom ahead, you’ll take advantage of it before the opportunity passes. In short, you’ll be able to take crucial decisions regarding your career, marriage, family, relationships, and all other life’s issues.
This ability derives from the fact that the seasons of our lives alternate from good to bad ones –and vice versa– according to a certain pattern which I explain in the book, based on the way the good and bad seasons have alternated in the lives of lots of famous men and women, whose the biographies I cite in the book.
From that pattern derives, of course, that we, too, can foresee how our own good and bad seasons will alternate in the future. This knowledge radically transforms the way we all live today, and helps us to live a much better life. I will explain first in the book how our seasons alternate from good to bad ones and vice versa and how thus you can foresee how your seasons will alternate in the future. Then, I will cite all the advantages and benefits deriving from this ability.
Before continuing, however, we have to clarify first some terms we’ll meet in this book. A “good” season tends to include both inner satisfaction and outer success, while a “bad” season is a season of anxiety, with failure and disappointment. But a good season is not always paradisal, without any concerns or difficulties. Life is never like this. Similarly, a bad season is not necessarily a hell; it may contain moments of satisfaction. Conditions are especially mixed at the beginning of each season, which could be seen as a transitional period. The first part of each good season resembles spring, and the first part of each bad season resembles fall. So there can be “storms” in spring and “Indian summers” in fall.
All of us have had good and bad seasons in our lives. Great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, for example, went through a bad period around the age of 32 because he had become totally deaf. Contemplating suicide, he wrote his will. Then a good season returned. Beethoven overcame his hearing problem, was recognized as one of the greatest composers of all time –he wrote nine insuperable symphonies– and became a celebrated member of Viennese society.
Napoléon provides another example. During a good season of his life, he conquered almost all of Europe, was crowned Emperor of France, and lived a life full of grandeur, triumph, and success. Then a bad season arrived: Napoléon lost all he had achieved, he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, and he was exiled ultimately to the remote island of St. Helena.
The specific criteria that characterize a good or bad season usually include factors like money, fame, love, and health. These criteria differ from person to person and can change over time. But usually there is only one main factor that shapes at a given moment the good and bad seasons of a person. For famous Greek ship owner Aristotle Onassis, for example, only money had any meaning throughout almost all his life, as you’ll see in his biography. But at the end of his life, when he fell seriously ill from incurable disease, only his health counted –though he was the wealthiest person on earth, money meant nothing for him anymore.
Also for Beethoven, health –his hearing problem– was of uppermost importance during one of his early bad seasons, but later –when he overcame that problem– his recognition as a composer became the main factor shaping his seasons. For Napoléon, on the other hand, fame was the only main factor shaping his seasons throughout all his life.
Some of you may have not noticed that there are good and bad seasons in your life, so you might have hard time believing these seasons exist. To be convinced, you only have to look back over your life the way I explain in this book. In the book, I also provide scores of detailed examples of good and bad seasons in the lives of a lot of famous people, which fully confirm the existence of these seasons.
The Story of My Research
Before explaining, however, the way our seasons alternate in life, we must first see what happened that led me to start a research regarding the alternations of the good and bad seasons in our lives –and how I arrived finally at the discovery described in this book. This will help you to fully understand my discovery.
It all began with a book, The Universe, published by Time-Life Books. That book mentioned that the magnetic poles of the sun reverse themselves every 11 years: the North Pole becomes the South Pole and vice-versa every 11 years. And that reversal always occurs on certain dates: somewhere in 1957, in 1968, in 1979, and so on every 11 years. These solar alternations led me to a spontaneous thought: Do the alternations of the sun’s poles influence human behavior? Are the alternations of the good and bad seasons of life synchronized with the patterns of solar activity?
To test this hypothesis, I reflected on my own life. But my hypothesis proved to be wrong: my life’s good and bad seasons hadn’t alternated the way the sun’s poles reverse –every 11 years. All I could come up with, however, was a turning point in 1957: a bad season had ended for me then and a good one had started. But 11 years later –in 1968– there was no reversal. On the contrary, my good season continued even better. I therefore realized that my idea was groundless and I abandoned it.
Later, a new book caught my attention. It was its title that aroused my interest: The Seasons of a Man’s Life. Its author, Daniel J. Levinson, a professor of psychology at Yale University, carried out a study showing that everyone’s life has four seasons, each lasting 20-22 years. But he did not distinguish which of those seasons are good and which are bad. That book however, brought me back to the question of the alternations of the good and bad seasons in our lives. Do those alternations, I wondered, happen not on certain dates –say, with the movement of the sun– but at certain points in our lives, such as the intervals of 20-22 years suggested by Levinson?
With that possibility in mind, I decided to look back over my life again. But the outcome was again negative: my life’s good and bad seasons hadn’t alternated every 20-22 years. The only finding was that my life had taken a second turn at my age of 40: my previous good season gave then way to a bad season. However, between those two “turns” (1957 and age 40) there wasn’t a period of 20-22 years, as I expected to find, influenced by Levinson’s study. So, I abandoned the effort once more.
Some years later, though, a new element appeared. A new turn had occurred in my life: the bad season I’d been previously experiencing had ended and a new good one had started. The above observation was, of course, a starting point. So, I decided to explore the subject further. I ought, I said, to examine what happens in the lives of other people: have their lives alternated the same way as in my own life?
To find out what was happening in the lives of others, I decided to examine some biographies. But since biographies on ordinary persons usually don’t exist, or they are very few, I realized that only biographies of famous people I could examine. The results derived from these biographies all confirmed my initial findings. I found that the alternations of good and bad seasons always occurred as in my own life.
At that point I said: “Okay, I can find patterns in the lives of famous individuals, but what about ordinary people? Can we say that my discovery is valid for every one of us?” There is no reason to think that the alternations of the seasons would happen any differently in the lives of ordinary people, of course. To further confirm this, I also discussed the subject with some friends and relatives –how their seasons alternated. They all agreed with my findings. We can say, therefore, that my discovery is valid for all. To be confirmed for this, you can also examine your own life’s good and bad seasons the way I explain below.
To show how the good and bad seasons alternate in our lives –so that you can foresee how your own seasons will alternate in the future, and take thus advantage of this ability– I cite first, in brief, the biographies of the famous people whose lives and seasons I have studied –ranging from Beethoven, to King Henry VIII of England and the Dalai Lama of Tibet. From the biographies cited, the way the famous people’s seasons alternated is shown in startling clarity. In these biographies, you’ll also see how even the people we think of being hugely successful throughout all their lives also have had bad seasons –and how their lives were radically affected by the runs of good and bad fortune. I explain my discovery gradually, step by step. We start in the next chapter with the biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, the great German composer.
