Forget the Fresh Start, Focus on the Next Step, An August Intentional To-Do List

You're figuring out the new schedule of all the places that everybody needs to be in any given day.

And as much as we love that fresh start, it can create unhealthy expectations and a whole lot of unhealthy pressure that creates extra stress that we really don't need, right? All for dreaming, all for creating ideas in our head to serve as an inspiration for the type of life that we wanna live.

But when it becomes unhealthy because we are creating unrealistic expectations, and then we are feeling bad about ourselves or feeling like we are less than, that's where we have to separate the dream from how it's actually impacting our everyday life.

And the whole focus on this episode, because this, once again, is an intentional to-do list, which is our first episode of every single month focuses on a direction or a item to focus on.

What should be your intention for the month ahead? And so for this August, I really want the focus here to be on taking purposeful steps forward.

All right? Purposeful steps forward.

Taking small steps that can move us where we wanna go without feeling like we need to do everything right or fix it all at once, okay? The pressure that comes with back to school, the routines that you're trying to implement to a T, the I'm gonna maximize every single moment or fill my day, right? Maybe your little ones are back to their routine, and you have kids in childcare, and you finally have your- Few hours in front of you where you're like, "I finally have a moment to breathe for myself," and you have this expectation that everything has to be put together or instantly put back to a reset.

Let's shift our focus away from this expectation of efficient maximum productivity, and instead focus on allowing our August to create a momentum that can carry us through the next few months of the year.

A momentum that can carry us through these next few months with purpose and intention, so we can actually live the life that we wanna live.

Think for a moment.

Think about yourself in October.

Think about yourself in November as the seasons are changing and the weather's getting cooler, and you're thinking about the season of gratitude, and you're thinking about the holidays coming up.

What is it that you wanna feel about what you've accomplished in the last few months? All right.

Think about what will bring peace to your heart.

What is going to speak to you deeply? And focus on moving forward with one super small step at a time.

Sometimes that might mean moving really slowly ahead, right? And that's okay.

We can move forward, whether it's to your goal or a routine you're trying to implement, whether it's a project you're working on.

Small steps carry significant impact.

And maybe sometimes taking these small steps means we pause and we rest, and we give ourselves time in our day and our week and our journey to just stay where we're at and not try to rush forward so we can regroup, we can adjust, and then take stride again.

Let this month be the month full of purpose in action where we truly focus on taking one small step at a time.