A year from now, you will wish you had started today.
Karen Lamb
September is just around the corner. It is a month custom-made for changes. Nights are cooler, days are brisker, and our minds are clearer, if only because the air is. Why not take advantage of it and renew your resolutions in September?
Tradition tells us the time to get our act together is January. But there isn’t much in nature in the middle of winter that suggests a new start. It’s a new calendar page in the midst of snow and cough season.
All those reunions, picnics, and trips to the woods in summer leave us feeling revived at the end of August. This state of mind is the best time to plan difficult things like resolutions.
Please consider that January comes after a month of over-eating, over-spending, and let down from the over-rating of commercial Christmas. This makes it difficult to think clearly or to keep resolutions. We shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves.
In September, all the food is fresh and local. Now is your chance to ease into a new diet. Now is the time to eat more fruits and vegetables when the garden, grocery store, produce stand and farmer’s markets are overflowing with colorful offerings.
January serves us heavy stews and loaded casseroles. And in winter we are as far from a fresh harvest as we can get.
September weather begs us to come outside and move. There are so many attractive ways to get off a couch. We can clean up the garden, rake leaves, chop wood, walk, ride bike. The weather is perfect and the scenery is golden. The views are far and uplifting.
Does anything beckon you outside in January?
In September, nature begins her yearly ritual of letting go. Following her cue, we can open the windows, open the drawers and closets in our homes and declutter what isn’t needed anymore. When the stack of useless items grows too large in the entry, the roads are clear for traveling to the thrift store or the dump. When you let go of stuff, you never have to move, clean, dust, or organize it again.
In January, bad weather will keep you at home with your piles of stuff, breathing the stale air from the heater.
The leaves change color and fall, letting the tree rest and gather strength for new growth. Let the falling leaves remind you to let go of worry, perfection or fears. Let go of being ‘busy’ and rather take time to do something that has meaning for you.
January has nature in a frozen grip, hoarding all it’s resources to wait for spring.
And if you want to learn, September beckons you back to school. Notebooks, pens, markers and crayons are plenty and cheap. You can start to journal, start a gratitude list, become an artist, learn to knit or write poetry. Stop by the library and find that book on sign language, hospitality, chess or whatever your heart is yearning to know.
January can leave our minds feeling sluggish, dull and not very receptive to new ideas.
Today is your day for new resolve. Don’t wait for January. September is here. She holds your hand, whispers in your ear. Trust the rhythms of the season and thrive.
-Liz
P. S. If you haven’t even thought of making plans for the fall season, don’t worry, you are not behind. Sometimes I need to feel the change in nature, before I know what change is needed in my life. When the time is right, you will know!
More seasonal articles:
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9 responses to “How to Get a Boost on Goals and Resolutions”
Love it! I feel much more like creating new goals now than in January but thanks for explaining why!
Hello, Ida. I wrote this article mid August and didn’t reread it before it went out. Sometimes I do feel revived at the end of August but this year I am feeling a bit weary. But the first official day of fall is still a ways out. We can ease into it, just like nature does! Wishing you success!
I love your perspective!!!!
💜💜
For many years it seemed that change always happened for me in the Fall. It became so frequent that I began to expect it. It seems to me that January is a poor time to start a new year. It should begin in spring or autumn. Instrestingly enough some cultures, particularly the Jewish, have their New Year in the Autumn. Their tradition has it that God created the Earth in either September or October, although I am unsure how they got that figured out!
Audrey, what interesting thoughts. Thanks for sharing them!
This is such an inspiring post. September and October are my favorite months, for many of the reasons you mentioned. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading, Vila. My current book is Full Moon, Half a Heart and I am enjoying Celeste’s adventures.
Why, thank you!