Happy September!

This week my 9 year old son, Dylan, started 4th Grade at his new Elementary school.  He was excited and unable to sleep the night before.   Do you remember how that felt?  I remember feeling that way before those first days of school.  Unsure of what the next year would bring and what I would experience.  Wondering (and somewhat dreading, if I am honest) the start of the new year with its new routines, obligations and friendships.
As kids, we got to start over new each school year.  A fresh, clean slate to write out our year, our accomplishments.  Would we get along with and like our teacher?  Would we form fun, positive friendships with our classmates?   Would this be my best year ever?  Please, please, please!!

As we grow up, those opportunities for a clean slate grow fewer and farther between.  Probably a good thing for most of what makes up our lives – assuming we have made good decisions for ourselves.  Sometimes, though, that existing slate of responsibilities, relationships, expectations and habits can feel like a heavy weight.  In the worst case scenarios, for those who are truly unhappy or unfulfilled, they can come to feel like chains.

How do you regain the childlike freshness of viewing each day as a new opportunity?  A month or year as a blank canvas yet to be written upon?  How do you recognize the incredible possibilities in each dawn?

What I know is that the ability to reinvent and recreate oneself is a key component of success and in leading a creative, heartfelt life.  Truly successful people know how to recognize when something in their lives no longer works or serves their best interests.   Inherent in that recognition are the first steps towards releasing or changing what no longer serves.   As they say, you cannot change that which you do not realize exists.

So, as the school year commences and a new season begins, here is hoping that you take time to breath deep and remember who you are and that you have the opportunity every single day to recreate your life and yourself.   It is never too late and you can never start sooner than now!