January 1 is the time of new goals, new plans, a new you. Except if you’re a parent. Then your New Year start in September. Our whole calendar shifts, and it shakes our routine. No more late bed times when we were busy playing on the trampoline during the long summer days. No more sleeping in till 8 am. With all the change, there is opportunity to start fresh.
Taking a year off of work has offered us the chance to ask, “What’s next?” In the last 14 years of marriage we have checked a few of the big items off our list. Travel the world: check. Adopt kids and have biological kids: check (We have adopted 4, have 2 bio, and are DONE.) Buy a home and renovate it: check (x 3). So we having been pondering the question, “What’s next?”
What’s next for you?
Maybe you have a little bit of financial freedom. Maybe you played your cards right and hit the financial jackpot and now the world of possibilities lies before you. Maybe you feel like a slave to your circumstances because your bills eat up 110% of your pay and the weight of it is crushing you.
September is just around the corner.
Everything changes in September. Even in you don’t have school aged kids, you notice the change. The weather changes. The air changes. The traffic changes. The leaves change. Long summer holidays are over and people get back to work (hopefully Congress included!) We stop drinking frapacinnos and start ordering pumpkin spice lattes. Things just start to feel different.
We can change also.
Why wait till Jan 1 2017? Let’s harness the changing season to bring new direction and change into our lives. How about we get a jump start on the New Year with September Resolutions?
Here are 3 tips to start your September Resolutions?
- Find your new narrative.
In our minds runs a story about who we are. And those words are powerful. When you consider your “what’s next”, think about how you hope next fall with look different than this fall. Maybe your food bill is much lower. You hardly ever order take out or buy lunch at work. Why? Because the new narrative says that you are a cook. “You cook affordable and healthy meals. You plan out your meals and have a stack of tasty recipes to choose from. You grocery shop every week.” Focus on this new narrative. Instead of the old thought patters that use to say, “I’m too tired to cook. I don’t have time to prepare something. It’s just easier to grab take out. I don’t even know what I would make.” You replace that old story with a new one.
- Focus on just 1 goal.
This isn’t your old New Year’s list. It doesn’t need to be 20 items long. It’s September, remember? Just pick 1 goal, that has 2 or 3 action points to it. Your one goal might be: Lower our food bill by cooking at home. Action items: Find receipts. Learn to prepare food. Start shopping with a plan.
- Learning, Progress and Practice is the end game: Not perfection.
We aren’t perfect. So don’t make that the goal. At the end of the week ask yourself, “Did I learn something new that will help me achieve this goal?” “Have I practiced these things I’m leaning?” “Am I making progress?”
I’m excited for September to arrive. How about you all? Are you taking advantage of the changing seasons to switch up a few other things in your life? How have your own narratives changed over the years?
I like the idea of a fresh start in September. I don’t have kids, but there is still something about the start of the new season and the end of summer that makes it feel like a good turning point.
Finding a new narrative is great advice. There have been studies that found that making habits a part of your narrative instead of just a thing that you do helps make them stick. You are much more likely to quit smoking if you decide (and keep telling yourself) that you are the type of person who does not smoke than if you simply decide that you want to quit. I think people should regularly check in on their narratives and see if any could be rewritten for a more positive impact.
We haven’t gotten to the point where September is the new year for our kiddo yet, but I still have that sense deeply ingrained in me from my school days! The end of summer, more than any other season of the year, feels like the time to start anew and break out a fresh notebook because who doesn’t love new school supplies?
Our narratives have definitely evolved. I’m now a cook where I was only an eater, before. I’m now a mom, where I was not, before. We’re now a tight-knit family, where we were still growing into our roles in the family, before.
I’m also paying attention to doing new things in my quarterly round-ups. I pay attention to money every month, but four times a year, I look at what I’ve been reading, learning, making, and where I’ve traveled. It’s a great way to push myself to live life a bit more than I was doing.
I love the idea of quarterly round-ups! It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day grind that we don’t push ourselves to do bigger things. That is a great exercise in mindful living.
I love this! And I’m glad we’re on the same page for September as a fresh start (kids.. they do that to you). The new narrative idea is awesome. I definitely need to focus on that.
The new narrative is something I have been practicing for about a year. I’m planning a bigger post just about taking charge of our thoughts. I’m naturally an introvert, which means about 90% of my daily conversation happens in my head. =) I’ve really had to pay attention to it!
Finding a new narrative really stuck with me. We all tend to hunker down into our routines when the temperature drops. Fall is all about change. Embrace it instead of avoiding it.
Exactly!
I love this! I’m a HUGE believer that the narrative we tell ourselves matters a lot, and love the idea of reframing it to tell ourselves that we are what we aspire to be. A few years ago, I banished the words “busy” and “fat” from my narrative, and the effect has been truly life-changing. My narrative shift right now is to stop feeling like I’m bad at my job, especially since I know that that’s not remotely true and that feeling stems from feeling a bit overwhelmed by the fast pace of it all. New narrative: I’m awesome at my job, and every day is a lesson in how to surf the endless tide of work. 😉
I really want to do a whole post or series on the things we think. I find it amazing how much of my behavior and attitude are formed by the thoughts that I let run through my mind.
Even though I don’t have kids and it’s been YEARS since I’ve been in school, I still get that “fresh new start” feeling when I see the kids going back to school. I like how you mention changing your narrative. I’m looking forward to making some fall-ish stews and crockpot meals. Right now it’s still a bit too hot for that.