Hi friends,

 

Welcome to this week’s spark.

 

Your fresh start is here.

 

What is a fresh start?

 

It could be the new year’s day or your birthday. Or it could be the start of a new month or week. Not so often does the start of a new month collide with the beginning of a new week. In 2024, it only happens twice (September and December) if your workweek starts on Sunday and three times (January, April, and July) if your workweek begins on Monday.

At my job, the sales team loves it when a new month starts with a new week because they feel the month is longer and more promising in successfully achieving their sales targets.

 

September, however, has a magical charm. It is the start of another kind of year: the school year. Just like students, we get to have a new beginning after the summer break. We get to settle into new routines. We get to set new goals and establish new habits without the pressure of January (new year, new you). We get to end the year the way we want, regardless of how we did in the previous months. We get to write a new success story.

 

I learned from reading How to Change that humans love fresh starts because it allows them to feel that their past self is far away along with its failures. A blank slate awaits us.

 

From the book How to Change:

 

“In our research we had seen that some calendar dates seem to provoke larger reactions than others. New Year’s, for instance, typically exerts a far greater influence on behavior than, say, your typical Monday. The bigger the landmark, the more likely it is to help us take a step back, regroup, and make a clean break from the past.”

 

“When we surveyed a panel of Americans about how they feel on fresh start dates such as New Year’s or their birthday, we heard again and again that new beginnings offer a kind of psychological “do-over.” People feel distanced from their past failures; they feel like a different person—a person with reason to be optimistic about the future.”

 

“We’re more likely to pursue change on dates that feel like new beginnings because these moments help us overcome a common obstacle to goal initiation: the sense that we’ve failed before and will, thus, fail again.”

 

However, if you were doing great in summer and practicing healthy habits, a fresh start may not be best for you. You need to keep going:

 

“Resets helped underperformers up their game but harmed people who were already doing well.”

 

On another note, you may feel behind and unprepared to use this fresh start. No worries; set a date to make it your fresh start and tell others about it. If you decide it's next week, use this week for planning:

 

“So, if you’re hoping to make a positive change in your life but are pessimistic about your chances, perhaps because you’ve failed before and worry another attempt is likely to turn out similarly, my advice is to look for fresh start opportunities. Is there an upcoming date that could represent a clean break with the past?”

 

A friend told me she is still overwhelmed after summer vacation and does not know what goals or habits to set for September. My advice is to go back to what worked. 

 

When were you at your best last? What did you do then? There is no need to come up with something new. Repeat what worked.

 

If you need inspiration, here are lists of habits and goals you can pursue

 

Habits:

 

Goals:

 

So, First name / my friend, use the fresh start or create your own. We all deserve to give ourselves the gift of a new beginning.

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P.S. I found this sentence in my Google drive journal from the year 2011 when I took one week off from work:

 

"I’m in love with such a long vacation, and I promise myself of a fresh start and clean slate at work after it, more serious and focused Bardees." 

 

How cool is it that I wrote that before I found out fresh starts are scientifically proven?

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On a personal note:

(You love those personal updates)

 

Fading is a word that comes to mind when I think about my memory. It is really hard to remember events and details from the past these days. Chat GPT confirmed it. I feel I can only focus on one thing a day besides caring for the baby. Examples from last week were decluttering one shelf, having people over, taking the one-month photo for the baby, labeling kids' books, and sending them for lamination. If I attempt to do more than one thing, I feel very swamped that day. I know this is all temporary, and I am embracing it and giving myself a lot of grace.

 

I am also curious to see how my days will go home alone with the baby as the kids start school tomorrow. I will definitely miss having those two around. I also told them this a few moments ago as they were being annoying, "Please behave today, so I will miss you tomorrow." I doubt they will make it till bedtime 😅.

Snapshot from my week: sunset from my home balcony, smell of fall is here already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See you next Sunday First name / my dear friend

 

* Note: To the best of my ability, I am trying to share content by authors who have not disappointed me, and they are hard to come by! Please let me know if any author I share about was disrespectful to Palestine.