Why September is the best goal-setting season?

Why September is the best goal-setting season?

If you want to succeed, you need to set goals. Without goals you lack focus and direction. Goal setting not only allows you to take control of your life’s direction; it also provides you a benchmark for determining whether you are actually succeeding. Think about it: having a million dollars in the bank is only proof of success if one of your goals is to amass riches. If your goal is to practice acts of charity, then keeping the money for yourself is suddenly contrary to how you would define success. So why is September the best time for goal-setting?

Did you know that 92% of New Year’s goals fail by January 15th? As summer draws to a close and the school year gets into full swing, the ninth month of the year is full of promise. Why not take advantage?

“I sometimes find myself accidentally calling this time of year ‘the new year,’ because it has the sense of starting fresh and beginning again,” says motivational speaker Gabrielle Bernstein.

Here are six reasons why you might want to start planning for success right now.

You’ve been programmed to have a “back to school mindset”.

Think about it from the time you were little, early September signalled the start of a new year, says investor and “personal-disruption expert” Whitney Johnson, author of Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work. “We’re programmed from the time that we’re very, very young to think about September as the start of a new year, emotionally and psychologically,” says Johnson. “In August, you’re reviewing, ‘What do I want to get done this year in school? How do I want to do?’ So, September, in some ways, is really the start of the year for most people.”

There is built in energy and strength.

The lazy days of summer are over, and September brings new energy as people begin to focus on what needs to get done before the end of the year, says Shauna Mackenzie, founder of Best Kept Self, an online self-care platform for entrepreneurs. September sees more business-focused goal setting than what typically happens in January, and it also gives the benefit of eight months of insight from the current year, she says.

The pressure is OFF.

At the same time that we have all this momentum and conditioning to set new goals, we’re not being bombarded by messages and pressure telling us what those goals and resolutions should be, Bernstein says. You can take time to focus on what you really need to get done—and not what others are telling you to do, she says.

You will have access to the resources and people you need for success.

Sometimes, you need advice and input to set resolutions and begin working towards them. You can try to find that in the weeks leading up to January 1, but it can be tough to get people to focus on giving you feedback on and making you accountable for your new goals when they’re focused on vacations and holiday parties, Johnson says.

You have time to make a difference to your bottom line if your goals are financial.

Setting goals in September lets you make moves that can have a true financial impact before the end of the calendar year. That could include making financial decisions about investing, tax planning, or other issues that need to be transacted before December 31 to count for the current calendar year.

You’ll have results when everyone else is starting.

Start working on your goals in September, and not only will you free yourself of the pressure to set resolutions for the new year, but you may even have some impressive results to show by then. “You can think of December as a fresh start, and then slide into January ahead of the game,” Mackenzie says.

September sees more business-focused goal setting than what typically happens in January, and it also gives the benefit of eight months of insight from the current year.

People with written goals are 50% more likely to achieve than people without goals.

Believe in yourself and find people to surround yourself with who believe in you as well. Life is too short to keep your circle full of people who will watch you fail.

Don’t EVER let your circumstances or people hold you down. Choose to be bigger than your challenges. Get out there and make your dreams a reality. No excuses!