Fresh Start Fall

September, to me, is a time for fresh starts. 

Maybe it’s the way the heat of summer finally starts to break, or the way the sunlight softens as the sun sits a little lower in the sky. 

Maybe it’s the harvest, reminding me of the months of work it takes for a truly worthwhile reward. 

Maybe it’s that lingering back-to-school excitement prompting me to get my notebooks and pencils ready and take on a new challenge. 

Because really, that’s what a fresh start is. We like to think of it as excitement and new beginnings and all of that. And sure, it is. But at its core, it is a challenge to your habits, your usual ways of doing things, the easy, thoughtless patterns your brain takes you through every day. 

A fresh start is deciding who you want to be in the future – what a new version of you looks like and feels like and how they think and dress and show up for themselves and others – and then putting the plan into place to become that person. 

So, my dears, where will your fresh start take you?

Is the future you a runner? An author? Did they get a big promotion? Are they someone who is calm, joyful, always at ease?

Once you’re clear on what you want the future you to look like, ask yourself how that person feels. Confident? Fulfilled? Inspired? Inspiring? 

Because, and this is one of the big secrets, the feeling is what drives us. We are less motivated by the idea of what we want to accomplish than by the way we think we will feel if we accomplish it. As much as some people like to “keep feelings out of it,” feelings are in it whether we want them there or not. We want to feel respected, fulfilled, loved, appreciated, whatever it is. And acknowledging that puts the power back into our hands. 

If you want to feel fulfilled, but you are telling yourself you can’t be fulfilled until you get that promotion, you will never feel fulfilled. If you want to feel loved, but you tell yourself that you can’t feel loved until your partner does X, Y, or Z, you are not going to feel loved. 

You’re putting conditions on your own ability to feel and experience life!

Because (here’s the next big secret) the “things” don’t cause your feelings. Your feelings are caused by your thoughts. The stories you tell yourself. You have thoughts about the things – the promotion, the exercise plan, the way your partner is acting, what it would mean to publish a book – and those thoughts lead you to feel certain ways, good or bad. 

Those feelings in turn impact how you show up. They impact the energy you bring, the way people perceive you. Which in turn has a direct impact on the outcomes of your life.

So, to bring it all back to the start. If you want a fresh start, you need to start thinking the way the future you thinks. You need to start feeling the way the future you feels, and acting the way the future you acts. 

If you want to feel fulfilled, what are thoughts you can think about your life as it is right now that make you feel fulfilled?

If you want to be a runner, what are things you can start thinking about yourself right now that make you feel like a runner?

If you want a promotion, what do you need to believe about yourself that a future, already promoted you knows to be true? 

Start where you are now. Create the feelings you want right now, without changing anything else, and the rest follows. Truly – as soon as your brain believes it’s a real possibility, it starts to do anything to get you to your ideal state. You start to exude the energy of someone who already has made the fresh start and is reaping the rewards. As you change yourself, the world starts to change around you. And suddenly, not too long down the road, your fresh start is simply your reality.

Much love,

Charlotte