Success, Redefined: Why We Practice Summer Mode

Inside Our ☀️ Summer Mode☀️

This month, Mind & Mountain - AKA Raine and me - are moving into what we affectionately call ☀️Summer Mode ☀️, which has become part of our annual work cycle over the last few years. 

We love it! And we wanted to share how Summer Mode came to be and why it works well for us inside of Mind & Mountain business vision. This way of working aligns with the values that we want our small business to uphold, and helps us show up for ourselves and the business throughout the year. 

Since starting Mind & Mountain, I’ve tried to create a business that is as far removed from hustle culture as possible - while also recognizing and pushing back against the systems that often fuel it: diet culture, white supremacy, and ableism.

Those influences can be so common, especially inside businesses in the fitness, outdoor recreation, and mental health spaces. It can be hard to see and name these influences, but the fact is that they are the water we’re all swimming in. So if we want to build a new culture that operates differently, it has to be done intentionally. 

Culture building in this way is always a process of learning and unlearning. One of the ways we practice living these values at Mind & Mountain is by operating with our annual, personal, and nervous system cycles in mind. 

Over the years, we’ve learned not to expect the same growth trajectory throughout the seasons of the year. Instead, we intentionally build ebbs and flows into our rhythm and are always trying to operate with an eye toward taking care of ourselves and each other along the way. 

☀️Summer Mode☀️ is one of the ways we’re able to do that these days!

The idea of ☀️Summer Mode☀️came around a few years ago when we realized that the pace of our business naturally slows in the summer. Many of our people are offline through the summer season, and log back on in the Fall when it’s time to get (physically, mentally, and spiritually) ready for winter again. Making it *official* and intentionally shifting with the flow of our workload - instead of fighting against it - has felt great. And we’ve started to notice other ways it supports our creative processes, too. 

I also want to acknowledge that we are absolutely aware of the privilege involved in building this kind of spaciousness into our work lives. It's not something everyone has access to, and I don't take it for granted.

It also didn't happen by accident. For years, we've been intentionally building a business that supports the way we want to live, work, and show up in the world. Summer Mode is one expression of that commitment.

To me, it's a reminder that success isn't only about growth or productivity. It's also about creating a life and a business that can sustain us over the long haul - one that leaves room for rest, creativity, relationships, adventure, and being fully human along the way.

Next, we’re each going to share how we use ☀️Summer Mode☀️ personally and in our work lives, and why it’s working well for us inside our annual work rhythm. 

Space Lover - Why Raine Loves Summer Mode 

For me (Raine), Summer Mode is a very welcome transition into having more space.

I love not being rushed. Moving slowly through my days, lingering over weekends, and soaking up the long, hot days of Northern Colorado genuinely delights me. For me, the biggest shift in our Mind & Mountain rhythm in the summer is our four-day work week, which gives me a chance to embrace a slower pace. It also lets me  get out on a trail or onto the water when things are a little less crowded - which is one of my favorite parts of the season - and to have more time working on art projects in my art studio. 

As much as I tried to become a winter sports enthusiast during my years in Alaska, summer has always been where I feel most energized. It's the season that fills my cup and recharges my batteries for everything that comes later in the year.

Fortunately, Sarah loves a slower summer pace too, and our business naturally supports it. Over the years, we've noticed that our online community and inbox both quiet down a bit as people spend more time outside enjoying the long days. Summer Mode isn't just a lovely perk - it's a rhythm that aligns beautifully with the natural ebb and flow of our work.

Beyond the slower pace, Summer Mode gives me the opportunity to stretch my brain in ways that aren't always possible during the busier seasons. I have space to explore new ideas, connect with potential partners, and work ahead on projects for the fall. That extra breathing room often helps set us up for a smoother transition into launching new programs and gearing up for Ski Babes.

I feel incredibly grateful to be part of this business and this team. Summer Mode is just one of the many reasons why.

Summer Lover - Why Sarah Loves Summer Mode 

I (Sarah) love summer! 

Alaska summer, specifically. It’s unlike anything else I’ve experienced on the planet. 

If you haven’t experienced it yourself, imagine the amount of energy that happens in a full growth cycle, all happening in a condensed period of time with 24-hour light and the impending winter season looming. There is so much enthusiasm in us - in our bodies and in the land - for making the most of the short summer season. 

And it’s so beautiful. I’ve had incredible experiences throughout different parts of Alaska in the summer, and my body feels deeply nourished, inspired, and healed by the time I spend out on the land. 

That’s true throughout the year, but in the summer it’s especially easy to access, and it’s the best. 

The slower pace of our work rhythm allows for a faster and more ambitious pace for my outdoor recreation. We are able to clear our work schedules enough to make a longer backcountry trip happen. My favorite place to be in this season is the Arctic, and it’s become an annual tradition for my partner, Luc, and me to head up there for a chunk of the summer season. 

In one sense, this remote backcountry time is complete time off. And, over the years, I’ve come to realize how important this “time off” is for my own nervous system healing AND for the creative process inside my work life as well. 

This time in the mountains, fully disconnected from the noise of the modern world, is an opportunity to connect more deeply with myself and with nature. It’s a powerful time. 

Over the years of following this seasonal rhythm, I’ve come to trust in the magic of this backcountry time and of the creative spark that this time away lights up in me.  

One way that happens is through what feels like a reorganizing of my senses: when I spend multiple weeks outside in the mountains, I can feel my body's rhythm shift and my animal body’s senses awaken.

It’s hard to put into words, but what it feels like is that my senses come into a different level of attunement and refinement throughout the trip. By the end, I’m able to read the landscape differently - noticing subtle differences between one share of green and another, and using that information to determine where the solid ground is for good walking versus the swamp that should be avoided at all costs among the tussocks. 

The opening of my senses, the nights sleeping on the tundra, and the experience of moving at the pace of my body in deep connection with the land, change something in me every time. 

It changes something in my nervous system, for sure. And I always learn something about myself. 

I come out of these trips a different person than when I went in.

Those lessons often translate into the next thing I want to bring forth in my work, too.

While I'm out there, I don't tend to think about work very much. That space is really for being present - in trip mode, I guess.

Then, when I return home to the front country, there's an integration period afterward where things start to coalesce. That feels like the phase of the process in which what I've learned about myself begins to find its way into something I might eventually share with others.

So in many ways, the way I'm using Summer Mode - using it as time to be out in the backcountry, out in the mountains, out on the water, picking berries, hiking in the forest - all of that could be called time away. 

But it's often where the most fruitful ideas and the greatest clarity about my work are able to come through.

There’s no doubt now, after years of finding and following this rhythm, that it’s mutually supportive - for myself and for the business and for my creative process.

The ideas that emerge from Summer Mode tend to be really exciting! By the time fall comes around, I often feel a very organic pull back toward my work - toward sharing, creating, and bringing together what I've been integrating over the summer.

One of the fears I had with starting up Summer Mode was that we’d always want to be working less, chilling out. But instead, we’ve found that, when we respect this cyclical rhythm, there is a natural transition that pulls us into the next phase of the work cycle in the fall.

The ideas I gathered in the summer tend to carry me into the next season, and the enthusiasm I feel for them becomes the fuel I have for the busier season in the winter.

It feels like the whole cycle sustains itself really well.

And we’re continuing to refine our process, always. We've been playing around with what a pause or downshift during the middle of winter might feel like as well, when our bodies are craving midwinter hibernation. We'll keep you posted as we continue to experiment and learn.

Cultivating Your Own Version of Summer Mode 

If you’re curious to explore this more, I have some invitations for you below. Feel free to sit and think with them, to journal about them, to bring them to your next tea meet-up with a friend: 

What would Summer Mode look like for you if you gave yourself permission to dream a little? If you imagined the most supportive, nourishing version of a seasonal shift, what might it include?

What's one small way you could experience a little more Summer Mode right now, without needing to make any major changes to your life?

What speaks to you about the idea of operating seasonally in your life? Whether that's in your work, your personal life, your creativity, or something else entirely.

What feels intriguing about that approach? And when you imagine bringing more seasonal rhythms into your life, what kinds of support, spaciousness, or possibilities come to mind?

Whatever Summer Mode looks like for you this season, I hope that it’s a good one!