Four Steps to Seize September & Supercharge Your Goals Today!

This is the transcript of The Refreshing Leadership Podcast episode: Four Steps to Seize September and Supercharge Your Goals Today!, published on 7th September 2026.

Since it turns out that my family's summer holidays spill well into September, I wanted to share an episode that I think is perfect for today: four steps to seize September and supercharge your goals.

We do love September around here, but it's somewhat annoying that my September seems to start a little bit late into the month. So if you are in a similar position, hopefully this episode will give you something to listen to as you gear yourself up for that back-to-school energy. And if your September has already kicked off, this will be the perfect accompaniment. I look forward to reconnecting with you next time with a brand new episode.

I want to give you some simple steps that seize that September energy and help you engage powerfully with your most important goals for September and the end of the year.

Step one: a five-minute micro-declutter

September often has a particular organising energy around it. Lisa Woodruff refers to this as a golden window for organising. The other golden windows she talks about are in January and spring - which is why we often call it a spring clean.

If you do have that desire to do some decluttering - what the Lazy Genius calls big, black, trash bag energy - you are not alone. This is a perfect time to work with that energy, because wherever possible we want to work with seasonal energies. It just makes everything feel easier and more natural, without having to force things.

But I'm not advocating a huge declutter here. It's mid-September, you might already feel like there are a lot of balls rolling, and that might not be what you have time and space for. What we're talking about is a more symbolic five-minute micro-declutter - or ten minutes if you fancy it. This is really about making space for your year-end goals and activity. When we do a bit of envisioning in the next step, it might be that you can make this micro-declutter relevant to those particular priorities.

For now, think about this: if you could do one area today that is a five-minute, high-energy reorg, what would create the biggest benefit for you? What's the high-leverage area that would create the biggest bang for its buck?

It could be your desk - making it not only clear but also attractive to sit at. You might have a pile of paper that's been bugging you, or you might just want to make it a bit more pleasing, maybe with a plant or a photo frame.

I did tackle my troublesome pile of papers, and I realised that it had been the same pile, reorganised a few times but never actually dealt with. This time I actually dealt with the paperwork itself, and I feel that not only my desk but my whole office is lighter and clearer - a more inviting space to do the type of work I want to be doing.

It could be an area of your wardrobe. There's a seasonal element here too, as people are currently switching summer clothes for autumnal or wintry ones, and this is such a good use of time. I've done this and realised a couple of things. First, I'm only using a small proportion of my wardrobe - apparently a classic organising mistake when you're only using around 20% of what's there. It's helped me see what I actually have and make better use of it rather than just defaulting to the same clothes. Second, my wardrobe seemed bursting full with every space crammed, but once I switched out the summer clothes I realised I actually have loads of extra space - even some empty drawers.

We're not talking a full wardrobe declutter. I'm talking about the troublesome drawer or the troublesome hanging space, something you can tackle in five minutes.

That's step one. There's a symbolic element here too: saying to yourself, "I'm making space for my goals."

Step two: a 60-second envisioning exercise

The next step is some envisioning, and I want to make a distinction between visioning work and planning. With visioning work, we don't need to know the how. We don't need to know that it's feasible. We can get a little bit more dreamy, we can activate both sides of our brain, and we can engage our more creative, expansive thinking.

If you're out walking, make sure you're somewhere safe before you try this, and press pause. If you can close your eyes, wonderful.

I'd love you to imagine yourself at the end of this year. You're somewhere pleasant, somewhere you really enjoy being. It could feel festive and cosy. For me, that's sitting on the sofa, ideally with an amazing glass of red wine, with festive lights and lovely people around me - family or friends. And you're thinking to yourself: it's been a great year. You've got that warm, glowy feeling that you've managed to get something under your belt that's making you feel really proud, or you've set something in motion that you're feeling really pleased about.

Give yourself a minute to figure out what comes to mind, and allow it to float into your consciousness. If you're out in nature, this is the perfect setting for this because the change of senses can really unlock those more inspired thoughts.

If you feel blocked on this, don't worry at all. You might be someone who finds it harder to envision, and it might just take a little bit more time. You may want to be in the shower, out on a run, or even doodling - something where you can switch off the more active brain and allow that thinking to come through. If you're struggling to find those moments in the day for daydreamy thinking, that's a really good indication that you may want to build more of that into your life so you can harness the parts of our brain that do actually support us a great deal with our goals and more expansive thinking.

The reason I want us to do this now in September is that we've just come out of the major summer holiday season, so it's a nice time to do some medium-term envisioning. It's a very doable period of time to look at with some clarity. If you struggle with longer-term vision - one year, ten years - this might feel much more manageable. You might be able to picture it more clearly.

It's far enough away that we can still make huge progress, but near enough that we can picture it fairly clearly, without hundreds of unknowns between now and then. That can sometimes feel overwhelming in January when you're trying to picture the end of the following year. To me, September is a great time to do this, and it takes absolutely no time at all.

Something that comes up for you in this exercise might be different from what's currently on your regular to-do list or objectives. I see that as really clarifying, because you may have many competing priorities right now, but what I'm asking here is what gives you that genuine sense of pride, glow, and accomplishment.

It might not be that you have control of the outcome, but that you've done the work to set it in motion - and that's worth celebrating. If we've taken the steps from our end that are within our control, the rest is then up to the universe and time. When there are lots of balls rolling, it can be hard to know where to put that extra focus and energy, and whatever comes up for you in that envisioning gives you a really clear guide as to what's going to make the real difference.

Step three: connection and putting pen to paper

Now that you've made some space and got some clarity, it would be easy to say, "Now's the time to commit hard to my goal." But when you're feeling tired, busy, or stressed, words like committed, consistent, and disciplined feel quite heavy. What I want us to do here is take these ideas out of our heads and put them onto a page so they exist outside of us - and ideally, I want you to reach out to somebody about these goals.

It might be a friend, a partner, or somebody who's involved in the goal in some way, so there's a natural team element. There's something really powerful about saying it out loud to somebody you trust, and about putting pen to paper. It no longer exists as a possibility knocking around in your mind. It's more tangible.

Often at this time of year, people have groups they're part of that they've lost a little contact with over summer, or haven't been as active in. This is a great time to re-engage. For me, my business coaching mastermind is a lovely group, always quite active. I periodically fall off Facebook and forget it exists, and quite a long period of time can go by before I re-engage. September is a nice time to check in.

Step four: put some skin in the game

This is your uplevel - the step that's going to take advantage of your September energy but give it longevity all the way to the end of the year. When October and November roll around and things start to feel really busy, it's colder, and we're perhaps more tired, the seeds you've planted now are still serving you during those months. It's not just about that January or September motivation. We want to do some hedging that gives us momentum going forward.

This is where actually investing - putting some skin in the game - is going to make a real difference. It could be buying a bit of equipment or some gear, or if it's a writing project, investing in nice writing materials and pens - something that signals to yourself that this is important and worth putting some money into. It doesn't have to be a lot. It could just be a beautiful notebook or a refreshed pair of trainers. But something that signals to yourself that this goal matters, and that also makes the activity or pursuit more attractive and enjoyable. Anything that draws you more to doing the activity is a perfectly good use of this investment.

And of course, as a coach, I'm going to suggest that getting expert support is your real shortcut here. Especially if you're feeling time-poor, engaging with someone who has the expertise and has done the reps themselves can make such a huge difference - preventing you from getting stuck in confusion or not knowing your next right step, because that's often what causes procrastination. Helping to remove that so you can keep progressing forward is so valuable. Getting that set up now while you have that September energy means that person or that investment can be there to support you in those darker months when motivation is harder to find.

This is a particularly important point for my high achievers. There's a parallel conversation I often have with my clients when they've landed a next-level role with new leadership responsibilities. What's got them there is often being highly accountable, great at executing, and known for delivering. But they then need to make a shift to a place where they're enabling others to do the work - where the question shifts from "what do I need to do" to "what needs to happen here."

That shift moves responsibility from all being on their shoulders to a much more empowered state where they can enable and empower others. And I'm talking about the same shift here when it comes to our goals. It can be really easy to pile all of your goals onto your back and think you need to carry each and every one. When we put skin in the game and invest in the right support, we can take some of that burden off our shoulders and allow other people to share in that journey with us. It makes things lighter and more easeful.

To me, that is the real clincher - the thing that makes goal attainment feel more inevitable. Once you've brought other people into the process, they bring their expertise, their emotional support, and they keep you on track. You take something from just being a nice aspiration in your head to something real, something that becomes more fun to attain.

Let me give you an example of how this can go wrong. I've been doing some kundalini yoga recently with an amazing teacher, Haley, and a friend. We meet Haley online at 6:30am for some daily practice, and we pay Haley a nominal amount for those sessions. She practises with us, but she's also our expert teacher, and she wants to encourage everyone to maintain a daily practice.

I was sharing this with somebody, and they said, "Once you know the techniques, can't you just do it by yourself?" And I'm like - I'm making a commitment to do breathwork every day at 6:30am, with a friend and a teacher who is 20 years into her practice and is willing to share that practice with me. To me, there is no better way of doing this if I'm seriously committed to it.

One evening, the teacher said she couldn't attend the next morning due to other work commitments. I thought to myself, "I'll still wake up and do this because I've got enough momentum now and I know what I'm doing." I thought about messaging the group to say I was still planning to do it, or messaging my friend to ask if she wanted to still do it. And then another voice in my head said, "Maya, you're not really sure if you're going to do it or not. Maybe don't say it - share with them positively after you've done it."

So the intention stayed in my head. Of course, 6:15am Maya is a completely different person. She woke up and found some amazing excuses for why it really wasn't worth doing the practice that morning. Nobody was any the wiser, no messages had been shared, there was no accountability, and the idea remained a figment in my mind.

If I was to redo that process, I would have messaged the group saying, "I'm going to try this - I'm not completely sure I'll do it, but sharing here because I know it gives me some accountability." I have a feeling that external accountability would have been that small switch that made me actually do the practice by myself that morning.

I wanted to give that example in case it highlights how easy it is for us and for others to tell us, "Oh, just do it yourself, you know what to do, you can do it for free." And how damaging that thinking can be for our intentions and our goals.

Quick recap

So there you have it - four steps.

Step one is a five-minute declutter or cleanse. Step two is a 60-second envisioning exercise. Step three is reaching out, putting pen to paper about your intention and your goals, and connecting with others about them. Step four is thinking about how you can put some skin in the game to signal to yourself that this is a goal you genuinely want to attain - and not just attain, but attain with ease, with fun, and with a sense of inevitability.

I hope that's been helpful. Please share it with somebody who is committed to their September goals and could benefit from hearing this.

Don't forget to drop me a note on LinkedIn - we have a pretty open canvas for the next month or two in terms of content, so share with me what you'd love to hear more of.

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About Maya

Maya Gudka is an executive coach specialising in C-suite career progression and leadership development. She works with senior leaders in major organisations on strategic career planning, executive presence, and building sustainable influence. Maya hosts The Refreshing Leadership Podcast, which ranks in the top 2% of podcasts globally and has nearly 300 episodes exploring the challenges faced by ambitious professionals.