Are you Ready to Rise This Fall?
Fall is quickly approaching. Kids are going back to school, new routines are starting, and you are ready to take on new challenges. You are ready to rise.
How can you get ready? How can you feel organized this fall so that your needs are taken care of, you feel productive and efficient, and you can move on a path directly toward what matters most to you?
First things first: What do YOU want and need this fall?
We rarely give ourselves permission to put our needs first. Instead, there are kids, bosses, co-workers, employees, students, clients, and on and on. We are faced with a list of responsibilities for the outside world and our own needs get quickly sidelined. So:
What if the first focus for your to-do list was YOU? What if, before you started scheduling all the busy to-do items, you intentionally scheduled in your own needs? Time for your projects? Time for the people you care about? Time for healthy eating? Time for exercise each day or week?
More control = less stress
In Simon Sinek’s book, Leaders Eat Last, Sinek describes the “Whitehall Studies”, a seminal British research study that determined “It is not the demands of a job that cause the most stress, but the degree of control [people] feel they have throughout their day. ..[T]he effort required…is not in itself stressful, but rather the imbalance between the effort we give and the reward we feel. Put simply, less control, more stress” (Sinek 2014).
I’ll repeat that last line: “Less control, more stress.”
Conversely, that means: More control, less stress. The more control you have over the decisions and actions in your life, the less stressed you are likely to be.
This means a few other important things:
t is important to your health and well-being that you find time in your life for the things that are important to you.
You will be a better employee/partner/parent/friend if you are taking care of yourself.
Take control now
Before the season and calendar gets busy (or busier), take some time to reflect on what you want to accomplish and/or have been putting off. If things are already busy, it’s not too late! Set aside some time (an hour? an evening? an afternoon?) to consider what you’d like to be doing with your time. How do you want your days to feel? What is missing in your life that you’d like more of?
This does not necessarily need to be a heavy lift. Start with where you are: Would you like more sleep? Better eating habits? More reflection? Or, what is the creative project you’ve been dreaming about? What is the class you’d love to take? What is the trip you want to take? What is the clean-up project you think about every time you look at the mess in the (garage/basement/attic/office…)? What is the work project you would love to dive into? Who would you like to see more (or less) of?
Make a list of what you need each day. Consider the basics: Sleep (at least 7 hours). Food (healthy eating). Regular breaks with those you enjoy. Put time aside each week for a personal project that brings you joy or inspires you — even 15 minutes is a great start.
Get the support you need
Having successful projects, for many people, means connecting with others. Reach out to someone for support, and stay in regular contact. What kind of accountability can you set in place? Is it a co-worker? A focus-based app? A loved one? A good friend? Or do you prefer a private, personal approach? Can you track your progress in a journal?
Two upcoming free time management workshops to support you
If you want coaching support, I will be offering 2 free Time Management Workshops (Tuesday, September 13 and Tuesday October 4; both from 7-8pm ET and on Zoom). This is a chance to get help creating time for the things that are important to you. If you want more information on these, click here).
It’s time for you to take care of yourself this fall.
And it’s time for you to rise – to your own occasion.
Upcoming Free Time Management workshops:
Tuesday, Sept 13 from 7-8 ET on Zoom
Tuesday , October 4, 7-8 ET on Zoom (sponsored by the River Valley Co-op of Western MA)