The Recommendation Room

Happy September 14th! We’re officially entering week two of our end-of-year sprint.

Last week, I left you thinking about the areas you really want to focus on over these next few months. A lot of people start their “winter arc” in October, but I’ve always liked the idea of starting a little early. September gives us a chance to get into the right frame of mind and begin building the habits we want in place before the season really changes.

For me, getting organized was the first step.

If you followed along with me in August, you know I spent a significant amount of time decluttering and organizing my space. I went through just about every room, closet, drawer, and corner I possibly could. That was intentional. I wanted to clear out the physical clutter before starting this sprint so I could go into September feeling like I had created space for whatever comes next.

And now, here we are.

September is where the real work begins.

We’ve done a lot of the prep. Hopefully, you’ve started creating a routine around some of the things you want to accomplish. For me, that routine has centered around a few key areas: daily movement, getting really organized with my finances, sticking to a no-spend challenge until I leave for vacation in December, and really honing in on my day job, which is coming to a climactic point over the next few weeks.

As you think about your own sprint, I continue to recommend keeping your goals consolidated. Pick three or four things you really want to work on. Anything beyond that can start to feel incredibly overwhelming, and the goal here isn’t to completely reinvent your life overnight. It’s to make meaningful progress in the areas that matter most to you.

Once you’ve established those priorities, one thing I’ve found incredibly helpful is journaling every day.

It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. Think of it as a mental data dump. What do you need to do? Where are you with your goals? What’s working? What isn’t? Where have you slipped a little? What needs your attention today?

That small daily reassessment can help you get everything out of your head, see where you actually are, and then, most importantly, put something into action.

Because last week was about kicking this off.

This week is about paying attention.

Did anything feel harder than you expected? Were there areas that didn’t quite come together? Did you start strong with something and then let it slip a little bit?

That’s useful information. You don’t need a perfect first week. You just need to notice what happened, adjust, and keep moving.

So, how did week one go?

What worked? What didn’t? And what are you changing as you head into week two?