September Reboot and Choices

Melissa Carson
4 min readAug 28, 2020
Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

For many seasons of my life, I’ve looked at September as a time to get a fresh start on the year, like a mini New Year’s Day. Some of the logic came because a company I worked for had a fiscal year tied to September 1, some because it signals the ending of summer, and now because it aligns closely to the start of the school year for my kids. This year more than ever, I’m ready to call for a reboot. I want to make a fresh start on how I’m looking at the world around me. I want to make new choices on how I see things.

Yes, I know that magically the woes of the world will not be solved when the clock turns over from midnight on August 31st, but I can do that with my mindset and how I look at the days, weeks, and months ahead. There are so many things that I can do if I don’t set limitations on what’s possible.

  • I can choose where I want to focus my time vs. feeling like I’m stuck on the hamster wheel of my commitments.
  • I can set or refresh my health or business goals vs. believing the year is mostly done.
  • I can decide how involved I want to be in the causes that matter to me vs. feeling unempowered to create change.
  • I can embrace a different type of school year for my kids even though I’m not confident how it will work out.
  • I can appreciate the changing of seasons that will start arriving vs. being sad that it’s getting dark early again.
  • I can celebrate when my son finally is able to get his drivers’ permit (waiting since April….) vs. being frustrated that it’s so delayed.
  • I can spend time with the people who matter (safely) vs. feeling limited to connect.
  • I can assess the levels of risk that are right for me and my family vs. feeling powerless.
  • I can recognize the power of what my body can accomplish vs. focusing on a few extra pounds that creeped on during the pandemic.

There are so many choices we can make that are fully in our power. Where are you feeling stuck? What are you telling yourself that might be getting in the way of moving forward? Is there a choice you could make that would improve how you’re feeling about life?

When we talk about mindset, here are some things that I’m focused on:

  • I choose to believe in the world of hope and glass half full.
  • I choose to believe that the world is full of people who care about what happens to each other.
  • I choose to believe that I am strong enough to the weather the storms that come.
  • I choose to know that I have a tribe of people that care about me, my family and my community.
  • I choose to believe that good will overcome evil.
  • I choose to believe that I have the power within me to be the best version of myself.
  • I choose to believe that I can achieve what I set out to do.

I need to tell myself these things (and many more) or else the world and its happenings get overwhelming. I easily can spiral thinking about racial injustice or the impacts of cancer or human trafficking or the impact of massive wildfires or hurricanes during a pandemic or corrupt election practices or countries where all do not have access to their basic human rights or so many other things that my brain fixates on.

I own my mindset. I own my attitude toward the world around me. I choose positivity. I am not putting my head in the sand, but I’m not willing to let the negative energy win. And, I’m not saying this is easy. Part of why I’m writing this is to remind myself about what I want and what’s important. Saying it out loud or in writing to others helps me commit to it.

As we head into September, I choose a mindset reboot. I know that the world around me will still have all the problems that it does today, but I choose an attitude of being part of a change for good vs. being swallowed up by fear and distrust and apathy. I know it will be hard to stay on this path I’m setting out but I need to start the journey and adapt when the challenges pop up.

A September Reboot.

  • Choose how you want to view and live in the world around you.
  • Decide how you want to feel.
  • Consider whether there’s some part of your life that’s ready for a reboot.
  • Consider whether it’s time to move to action.
  • Consider what habits you’ll need or that need to be adjusted.
  • Consider what barriers may pop up.
  • Consider what support you will need from others.
  • Take control of what you can control and try not to focus on all the things you cannot control.
  • Make the choices that feel right for you right now and be ok with them.

What does your reboot look like? What choices will you make to color the world in which you live?

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Melissa Carson

Creating & implementing powerful people strategies with leaders and teams that know they must get the “people stuff” right to achieve business results