Happy Fall!
Some know this season as pumpkin spice and sweater season. Parents, kids and students know it well as back-to-school season! Either way, it does seem to be the back-to-real-life-post–summer-party-season. It is a time where we often re-focus and get back into a routine. We tend to set goals, settle down and re-imagine what we want the rest of the calendar year to look like.
I always love this time of year, even as a kid. I used to excitedly await the back-to-school shopping… for school supplies! The smell of new highlighters, binders and paper was bliss. The newness of everything was thrilling; it felt like I was being given a fresh start. The chance for a New Year, three quarters of the way through the year! It was even celebrated with a new agenda. What better denotes a fresh start than a new, untainted agenda?!
Fresh Starts vs. Unrealistic Goals
No matter how thrilled I was for a fresh start, committed to my new goals of what I wanted the coming year to look like, life still happened. I would inevitably feel overwhelmed, stressed, tired and struggle to adhere to my goals. Just as the January New Year brings hope of a fresh start that doesn’t always go the distance of 12 months, so too was I disappointed in my youth that I couldn’t keep up with my ambitious and unrealistic goals.
This fall, give yourself a break!
If you are at all like me in my youth (and sometimes me as an adult…), how about this: instead of planning ambitious and unrealistic goals, you take a pause. Let’s reflect on the year you have had so far and integrate some 2021 wisdom. It has been quite a year! Perhaps you can set an intention that honestly matches and honours who you are right now in this wild world we are currently inhabiting.
Things are not quite typical, are they?!
Be gentle with yourself. Whatever the fall brings, move forward with some self compassion, empathy for others and a desire to seek some sprinkles of joy!
