Why Wait for New Year to Make a Change?

The season is turning to autumn - an excellent time to reflect and refocus.

For many this time of year is a time of new beginnings and growth. The start of the new academic year, back to work after a well-earned summer break, perhaps starting a new job. Although many see the New Year as the time for making resolutions, statistically autumn is the best time of year to make achievable, life-altering changes. Reflecting on what you may have or have not accomplished in the year thus far can help you to refocus and determine how best to move your life forward..

Time to revitalise your goals and aspirations.

Make the choice to see autumn as the ideal time to assess where you are right now - is it where you had hoped? If not, what can you do to change that? If it is, then what is the next growth phase in your life that will challenge you? What has and has not worked for you? It is a basic human need to have purpose and goals, to be stimulated and express ourselves creatively in some way by setting ourselves new challenges, learning and expanding our horizons. A life where these needs are not met can lack self-worth, cause us to enter into depressive cycles or low-mood or feel we have little value. We can find ourselves bored, stuck in bad habits and lacking the motivation to achieve goals.

Tips:

  • Don’t rush headlong into making rash decisions or set unachievable aims and goals. First put a little time aside to reflect and be grateful for the things you have learned over the past year, then consider what it is that you would most like to achieve going forward.

  • Determine what is most important for you to attain over the coming three months, be that personally, professionally or perhaps both. Break that goal down into small achievable chunks which you can tick off as you make progress.

  • List your top five priorities/aims for the year ahead and then focus on the one that could potentially fulfill your intention, get you ‘unstuck’ or motivated - giving you that sense of accomplishment and achievement.

  • Sometimes it helps to create a road map or vision board to help guide you through accomplishing what is important to you - a visual aid or prompt. This can be a great, productive way to end the year and create the momentum you need to start 2020.

Refocusing in this way will set you well on the path to improving your sense of self-worth and value. Embrace the change to autumn and open yourself up to new opportunities and possibilities.