Preparing For A Fantastic Fall
Every October my classes fill up. People come back from summer looking for something to anchor to as the weather turns and the school year starts and the year stops feeling endless. There's a reason for this. October is the secret New Year for a lot of us. Before Covid is was September — even if we left school decades ago, the body remembers the rhythm.
The mistake most people make is treating it like January with an outdated understanding of how our brains work. Big resolution, hard restart, white-knuckle discipline. By mid-October, it has usually fallen apart, and most of us blame ourselves rather than the strategy.
After forty years of teaching movement and a Behavioral Change Specialist certification later, I can tell you the strategy is the problem. Discipline and motivation are the wrong frames. Systems work better. Compassion works better. And starting now — weeks before fall actually starts — works better than waiting for the perfect Monday in September.
A few specific tips that hold up:
Start tiny. Smaller than you think you should. One of my students put it this way: "I had to start much smaller than I realized — and for the first time, I'm making it stick." Two minutes of stretching, not twenty. One glass of water before coffee, not a whole hydration regimen. The point is consistency, not impressiveness. The brain only adopts what it can repeat.
Stack new habits onto existing ones. Want to start a stretching practice? Do it right after you brush your teeth. Want to read more? Open the book when you sit down with your morning coffee. The existing habit becomes the cue. You don't need to remember because your body already does that piece.
Set up the environment. Lay out the yoga mat the night before. Put the running shoes by the door. Move the snacks you don't want to grab to the back of the cabinet, and put the fruit on the counter. Most "willpower failures" are environment failures in disguise. Redesign your environment in the most simple ways.
Schedule it like an appointment. Block the time on your calendar. If a 9 a.m. meeting wouldn't get bumped for a vague urge to scroll, neither should your walk. This sounds rigid. It is the kindest thing you can do for yourself.
Forgive missed days fast. The single biggest predictor of whether a new habit sticks isn't how perfectly you do it — it's how quickly you start again after a miss. Skip a day, don't make it a story. Pick up the next morning. The streak doesn't matter; the return does.
Close out summer on purpose. This is the one nobody mentions. Before the fall energy kicks in, take an actual evening to mark the end of summer. A last beach day. A meal outside. A walk somewhere you love. Closing a season cleanly is how you open the next one without dragging the unfinished feeling behind you.
If you want to do this with a structure and a group of people who'll do it with you, I'm teaching my fall habits workshop September 13th. It's the “starter pack” material I use with my Joyful Shift retreat guests — the science of behavior change, taught with kindness and zero shame. Details and registration on my workshops page.
Or just pick one of these tips this week and try it. Fall is coming. You don't have to brace for it. You can prepare for it like a new and exciting journey; a little at a time, with curiosity, knowing the pleasure is in the going.
