It's back to school time! 
 

I've been out of school for 22 years, and I still cringe when I see those signs go up in the stores. I then remind myself that I don't have to go to school, and that feels better.  But it also means that summer is drawing to a close, and my favorite season is once again ending.  Lastly, it marks the ending of my north woods camping season, which is good news/bad news for me.  I will close up the beloved lakefront property, and have to say goodbye to my woods for 7 months.  The good news is that I get to live in just one place again, rather than spending time in two different states, with lots of driving. That gets really confusing after awhile.  One summer I actually slept in 4 different places; what a mess. But now I can settle in, clean up, and know where all my stuff is for awhile.
 

January 1 is supposed to mark the start of a new year, but for many of us the New Year in our lives feels more like September first. Our years and years of schooling set the date in place as the real "beginning" of the next phase of our life.
 

So what does your New Year ahead look like?  For those of you with kids/grandkids, it may mean the end of children underfoot and more peace and quiet during the day. More quiet time for what? For others it may just be more of the same, same job to go to, same people to live with, same old, same old. Perhaps this change of seasons is a good opportunity to think about making the next year new in some significant way.
 

What do you want in your coming year that was absent or rare in the past one?
 

More travel?
More creative/art time?
More 'me' time?
More fun?
More sad time? (Just kidding.)
How about trying something that you've always wanted to do?
More quality time with certain people that you love?
Maybe it's doing less of the things you do out of guilt only?
 

When I first started coaching, I imagined that I would be dealing with quite a few people who didn't know what they wanted.  Instead I am finding that the vast majority of folks really do know what they want to add to, or change in their lives.  Most are very clear on that part.
 

The snag comes between the wanting and the doing.  You have a clearly defined goal for your life, but it can't be achieved in one step. So you look at it, become overwhelmed and confused, and then turn away.

You've got lots of other things going on to distract you from it, and so the months go by, then years, then when you're my age, decades begin to fly. Beware! Too late may lie ahead.
 

In my coaching I use a great flowchart method, which gets rid of the no man's land between a dream and achievement, this technique defines specific (and quite manageable) action steps that chart the path to the desired end.  We can all take small steps; but we often could use some help in defining what those are.  Once the journey is charted in small steps, our enthusiasm replaces confusion, and we can start moving toward what we really desire.
 

So what do you want for your new year?