September Is the New January
September Is the New January: Now is the Perfect Time to Set Goals and Kickstart your Self-Confidence
One of my philosophies as a life coach is that life happens. If, like me you gave yourself the summer off from some of your responsibilities and habits that’s totally ok.
Maybe the long summer evenings invited you to stay up later than usual, perhaps the heat this year drove you from your kitchen prompting an abundance of BBQ suppers, or you subconsciously stopped your journaling practice somewhere along the way. We all need a break, and sometimes that is longer, or shorter, than others.
Taking a cue from the natural world, consider what might happen if you give yourself permission to live seasonally. Don’t expect your behaviours and energy levels to be the same year-round. Your self confidence will benefit from the ebbs and flows, allowing time to dream your audacious dreams and set your goals. Create periods of time where you strive harder and focus your energy more intensely on achieving your goals. For me the spring and fall provide the perfect space for these intense periods of work, while the winter invites snowboarding, and the summer calls for golf, camping and time in and on the water.
As the summer draws to a close I invite you to hit the reset button and recommit to achieving your goals. Research shows that September is the new January with a host of compelling reasons why you will increase your success when you set goals in September instead of waiting for January to make new year resolutions.
5 Reasons Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Set Goals
Delaying Your Goals Makes Them Seem Harder
The longer you put off working on your goal, the more your mind builds it up to be scarier and harder. In some cases delaying your goal will make things more difficult. If your audacious dream us to be ready to climb Mount Baker next spring, it will be much easier to slowly up your fitness over 6 months than to cram it into 3 months. If you want to write a book, the more you put off starting on your goal, the more mind drama your beautiful brain will offer. Listen to episode 1 of the Redo You podcast to learn more about how to overcome procrastination.
Setting Goals Boosts Your Mood
You might be feeling sluggish after the summer and the thought of getting ‘back to reality’ might have you feeling glum. Setting goals gives you something to work towards, and when you achieve your goals, you are empowered and motivated to take on more. Instead of viewing this time of year as a slump, chose to make it a window of opportunity to focus on you, work on your goals and kickstart your self-confidence.
Get in While Business is Slower
Many businesses are quiet in September making it the ideal time to get working on your goals. Meet with an accountant way before tax season, join the gym before the new year resolution rush, book into the spa for a top to toe treat before party season begins! Life Untethered Coaching, my Kamloops Life Coach practice sees an upswing in clients in the new year so now is the perfect time to invest in your success in while I have space for new life coaching clients.
Incorporate New Routines into Schedule Changes
Daily routines change around this time making September the perfect time to set goals. You could use this new January to restart an old habit or to set a new goal for yourself. Take the time to intentionally plan out your schedule making time for you to work on your goals. 15 minutes a day adds up to over 90 hours in a year, imagine how much closer you can get to achieving your goals if you just make time for them!
Start Working on Your Goals Now and Be Further Ahead by the New Year
If you put off your goals and wait to make new years resolutions, you will only get further behind. If you want to lose weight, there is no sense carrying on with the same eating and exercise habits you have now. Set your goals in September and start working on them now. Depending on your goal you may even have achieved your dream by the new year!
5 Goal Setting Ideas to Kickstart Your Self-Confidence
Review Your New Year Resolutions
Look back at your new year resolutions and see which goals you have yet to fulfill. Pick a goal and commit to working on it for the rest of the year. If it is not possible to achieve your goal in that timeline, break it down into smaller steps. Set a goal of starting in September and completing the first phase this year, you can then continuing working on the next steps in your goal in the new year.
Restart Your Goals
What is a habit you used to have that served you and you let go? Picking up a practice that you held before can be a great way to boost your self-confidence since you know that you can do it. Remind yourself of something that you used to do that made you feel good, that might be getting up 15 minutes early to enjoy your coffee in peace, stretching for 5 minutes before you go to bed at night, or phoning your mum each Sunday. Your goals don’t have to be huge, there is a benefit to having lots of small achievable goals because you get a dopamine hit each time you complete a goal. Start working on your goals now and you’ll boost your self-confidence helping you to be ready to take on more challenges.
Set Yourself a Challenge
Building habits takes time, you can leverage your brain’s thirst for reward by gamifying your goal and turn your life into a winning streak. Decide on what you want to achieve and set yourself a goal, for example you will do 50 crunches every day, take your lunch breaks away from your desk, or read a couple of pages of your book club book in the evenings. Commit to keeping up your daily practice for 30 days with a reward for achieving your goal. You can start now in September and keep the same goal, or you can add to it each month. By creating habits in September, you will have the self-confidence to keep going into the new year and beyond!
Achieve Your Goals with an Accountability Buddy
Enlisting a friend with similar interests and goals is a great way to boost your motivation and build self-confidence. As a life coach in Kamloops I teach my clients tools and strategies to help them move forward with confidence. One of my clients has a climbing buddy and they encourage each other to go at least once a week. Another life coaching client spends a couple of hours on Wednesday afternoons doing their meal prep in their own kitchen while chatting over zoom with their ‘body double’ who is cooking in her home. When you and a friend work on your goals together it helps you both to achieve your dreams. Share this article with a friend who could benefit from the September is the new January philosophy and invite them to join you in a challenge.
Embrace Gratitude to Boost Your Self-Confidence
A daily gratitude practice is a powerful way to increase your self-confidence and give you the motivation to achieve your goals. My life coaching clients love the Rose Thorn Bud daily gratitude practice. Here is how you can incorporate gratitude into your day for self-confidence, at the end of each day ask yourself these three questions: What was a highlight of my day today? This is the rose. What was a challenge that I overcame? Your thorn. What am I looking forward to tomorrow? Your bud. This simple gratitude practice trains your brain to look for the positive which boosts your confidence and helps you to achieve your goals.
You have learned about the September Is the New January philosophy and how starting to work on your goals now can boost your self confidence and help you to achieve your goals.
Remember that now is the perfect time to set goals because
Delaying Your Goals Makes Them Seem Harder
Setting Goals Boosts Your Mood
You Can Get in While Business is Slower
It is Easier to Incorporate New Routines into Schedule Changes
Start Working on Your Goals Now and Be Further Ahead by the New Year
You have 5 goal setting ideas to kickstart your self-confidence so you are probably feeling pretty pumped to achieve your goals now instead of waiting to make new years resolutions. I know I am ready to get back into my gym routine and build up my legs for powder days!
If you are ready to start crushing your goals today, sign up for my free 21-day September Is the New January challenge and I’ll guide you step by step through my proven process to achieve your goals.
Emma Hull is Canada’s Top Confidence Coach.
An internationally recognized life coach, speaker and educator.
Her approach is simple, she teaches you to master your mindset so you can move forward with confidence. She is the founder of Life Untethered Coaching based in Kamloops BC and serving clients worldwide. Book your free strategy session to begin your transformation.