Why September is My January
(And Questions I Ask Myself to Make the Most of the Last Quarter)
I’ve long held the belief and practice that September is the real January. And I hear you, technically September is not the start of a new calendar year and we’re actually winding down the year, not starting a new one.
But when the real new year rolls around in January I’m usually not too excited. The novelty of cozy soup season has worn off, it’s cold AF, I’m worn out from the holiday season sprint, the emotional labor from being a mom during the holidays has laid me out and nothing really feels new or fresh. Not to mention it’s right in the middle of the school year and we’re still a few months away from spring break. I need a breather and I’m not quite feeling the motivation to set goals and charge ahead toward them.
Even if you don’t have kids most of us are subconsciously conditioned to track our lives and goal setting along the school calendar year. It flows well with the seasons with Memorial Day and Labor Day marking summer break and the slow down of longer and slower days, and businesses slowing around the holiday breaks when schools are closed. And when you consider that all of our formative years followed a traditional September-May calendar, it’s hard to shake the feeling that fresh starts begin in September.
Even though January is traditionally the time we are marketed to and persuaded to make positive changes and set goals, September is really a smarter time to be harnessing the natural energy of the season. When I say natural energy, here is what I’m talking about:
Historically the fall meant it was time to prepare for winter, so we are naturally conditioned to feel more productive and in that “get stuff done” headspace in autumn. This is not the case in January when our bodies naturally lean into rest and restoration.
It’s still warm with long, sunny days without it being quite as hot, so we tend to feel the happy effects of summer without the oppressive heat. The weather is starting to turn cool in the morning and evenings and that impacts most of our moods in a really positive way. When we’re in a good mood we’re much more likely to be able to set and reach goals more effectively.
Knowing there are only four months left in the year ignites a sense of urgency in many of us and kick starts action on things we wanted to accomplish or make progress on throughout the year. It’s one thing to set a goal knowing you have twelve months to achieve it, but something changes when you realize eight of those months have flown by and you haven’t made the progress you envisioned. You might perform well under pressure or be someone who procrastinates because procrastinating has always worked for you. If so, consider September your new January :)
You can look at September in one of two ways.
It is a whole new year for you. You use this time to set goals, take inventory of all the things, assess what’s working and what isn’t and make changes accordingly.
-OR-
Look back to the intentions you set for yourself in January and evaluate how things are going. This is a great time to check in and take note of what progress you’ve made and make necessary adjustments in the last four months of the year.
Here’s My Personal Approach:
This likely won’t surprise you, but I like to do a little bit of both, with a fly by right around my birthday in May. I do some loose brainstorming at the beginning of the calendar year and mull around what I would like to happen that year. This is primarily centered on my business and finances and what I’ll ideally accomplish that year. I’ll also set a more realistic goal that I will be happy with if I can meet that and meet my kids’ needs at the same time in the coming year….i.e. a lofty goal but then also a good enough goal. (man there’s so much to learn about the tradeoffs and sacrifices with scaling a business when you also don’t like giving up control in the young kids phase of life…oof).
A few months later, in May, I celebrate my birthday. By this time I’m re-energized after the winter and I go back to the drawing board and brainstorm again what I want to be intentional about in my new year. This tends to be focused more on my relationships, health and parenting. This is also right before summer break so I buckle down about a plan to get through the summer as a working mom.
When September rolls around and my kids are back in school, I look at both my January goals and those that I set out for myself in May. When I realize I have just under four months left to tackle it all, it lights a fire under me. I won’t ever get to it all, but the urgency is a magnificent motivator for me.
When I’m doing my September shake down of how things have gone, here are some things I like to reflect on and ask myself when I’m looking at finishing out the rest of the year:
How productive have I been feeling this year? And I should note that over the years I’ve re-defined what productivity means to me. I judge my productivity based on how well the day went for me and my family. Did I do what was right for me and/or for them? The definition of productivity I use isn’t conventional anymore and while of course there are metrics that I need to meet that are necessary, what I consider to be productive is a much broader range of things.
Am I connected or am I floating around? And I don’t mean connected to others, I mean connected psychologically to myself. Do I feel psychologically connected or do I feel psychologically homeless? Meaning, am I grounded in the reality of my life day to day? I try to ask myself this question often because for a lot of my life I was very disconnected, often floating just above myself. It felt like life was happening to me, not because of me. It isn’t like that anymore but because my days are so full I don’t ever want to go back there again and it’s easy to sometimes feel like I’m on autopilot.
What actually matters these last four months? If I’ve done well with work this year but feel like I’ve been slacking in the parenting or friend department, then that is probably what is really going to matter to me these last four months. It’s okay to re-evaluate and pivot in the last quarter.
Will I be happy with what I could control this year come January? Of course I can only guess, but I like to ask myself this when I still have a few months left in the year. At least I can still change things if I don’t think I’ll like this answer and if I truly can’t do anything about it, I can start centering my mindset on acceptance and being okay with it now.
If you try this I’d love to hear how it goes for you…
Happy New Year!
Melissa
