September Intentions

Summer is coming to an end. I am ready for a new season.  Transitioning out of summer is one of my favorite seasonal changes.  Personally, I think August is just a blight.  It is too hot, humid and stifling.  I use my air conditioner way too much.  I get lazy about everything.  My schedule gets more and more inconsistent.  My mealtimes turn into snack times and meal prep falls off.  It is just not an active atmosphere for me.  Forget hibernating in the winter, I check out in August.  

It is Labor Day Weekend and I’m excited to leave August behind.  Its memory will probably linger for a couple more weeks but I’m just going to start anticipating Fall.  It is a good time to take stock.  Set some intentions.  Clean up some of the August bad habits I started to develop.  I’m slightly allergic to planning—total anxiety trigger for me.  I’m also not exactly a member in good standing of the goal-setting team.  But creating some new or revised intentions—that works for me. 

For me, it is mostly about keeping me from falling too far off the path.  It’s a no-pressure guide to remind me of things to do, work on, try out—a way to keep things from falling through the cracks.  It is also a way to keep me honest about staying true to my purpose and lifestyle.  Today, I’m going through my Wellness Triquetra elements (link) and looking for ways to incorporate them going into September.  There are things that I wanted to do but never seemed to get them into my day.  There are things I think I’ve become a little neglectful of.  There are things I want to improve on.  And there are things I just want to experiment with and try and see how they fit—or don’t fit in my lifestyle. 

Paper and pen work best for me when I brainstorm. I made a list for each of the elements. Then I narrowed it down and made some choices on what I want to focus on for September.  I’m sure there are some out there that can just throw a multipage list together and launch themselves into an exhaustive number of self-improvement and growth projects.  I commend their get-up and go ambition.  I try to be a bit more reasonable about my level of get-up and go. (Spoiler alert: I’m more like a get-up and meander type of girl.)  I don’t like to feel like I failed so I like to keep my to-do lists small.  Those little unchecked boxes just scream disapproval at me.  Nothing more satisfying then actually completing the list. I call it setting myself up for the win.

This is my original brainstorming worksheet:

These are my intentions I’ve decided to focus on for September: