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New Highlighters, New Possibility
September 15, 2026
It’s back-to-school season again, and so are the trips to Target for school supplies. As my kids picked out notebooks and binders, I grabbed a fresh set of highlighters. It’s a strange little ritual I’ve picked up over the years. There’s something about kicking off fall with a new set of colors.
This week brings curriculum nights for both kids. It’s basically your child’s whole school day in fast-forward: 10 minutes per class, a bell that actually rings, and a hallway full of parents hunting for room 1214. Meeting new teachers, getting a glimpse of what they will learn, and a whole year of goals nobody has fallen behind on. I genuinely love the slight chaos of it all, and I come home all fired up by the new start.
I turned to my husband and said, “I’m so ready to go back to 9th grade!” Of course, I also almost skipped math to go visit the therapy dog.
Wipe the Slate Clean
There’s a reason back-to-school seems full of potential. Behavioral scientists call it the “fresh start effect.” Our brains see certain dates as a kind of dividing line, with a clean before and after. Some of those lines are ones we all share: the start of a new week or a new year. Others are personal: a birthday, moving to a new house, or starting a new job.
Whatever the date, the effect works the same way. For a little while, we feel more capable and more motivated. And we’re ready to tackle the thing we’ve been putting off.
This is a good opportunity to assess the situation: what actually deserves more of my attention right now, and what am I still doing out of habit, long after it stopped making sense?
There’s a catch, though, and I say this as someone who’s fallen for it more than once. That same optimism can trick us into biting off way more than we can chew. Suddenly the plan is: work out every morning before 8, cook every meal from scratch, read more, reorganize my home office, sleep 7 hours a night, be an art docent for my daughters class, and become a certified health coach. All starting Monday!
The challenge is that a list like that is hard to sustain long-term.
The good news is that the burst of motivation you feel at a fresh start is real. And the bad news: it’s also the least reliable ingredient in the whole equation. It’s a moment in time, not a foundation to build lasting habits.
Behavior scientist BJ Fogg built an entire framework on this idea; he calls it Tiny Habits. The short version: don’t waste that surge of motivation on a huge goal or spread it among 20 goals. Focus on making the small version effortless—so small that it’s ridiculous not to do it.
Small Tweaks, Not Overhauls
You don’t need a total life overhaul to make a difference. A few small shifts go a long way, especially when you attach one to something that’s already happening in your day. Here are 2 I’m playing with this month:
Pick something that aligns with your values. Growth and appreciating beauty are both core to who I am. That’s why I’ve decided on practicing 15 minutes of watercolor every Sunday, right after breakfast. My goal is not to master it. I just want to bring something creative back into my life.
Try strength training. Summer is full of outdoor movement for me. I love walking, paddle boarding, hiking, and biking. As the weather changes (and I continue to age!), I am going to shift toward strength building. This month I’m swapping in 1 upper-body Peloton workout each week, right after dinner.
And here are 3 more ideas that I considered:
Cook something new. Fall is prime season to try a new recipe or bring back an old favorite (mine = Soul-Soothing Peanut Stew).
Declutter one space. As the season changes, we tend to spend more time indoors. Maximize that by spending 5-10 minutes a week decluttering something small, like the junk drawer.
Try “something new.” Choose something small and low risk — maybe a different route home, a food you’ve never ordered, or a class.
Life Isn’t Balanced. It’s Seasonal.
Given this burst of new energy, you may be asking yourself: how can I balance it all?
The reality is we don’t spend equal amounts of time on work, our families, fitness, our friends, and all the other activities. It’s normal for things to ebb and flow, and it’s perfectly ok to focus on different things in different seasons.
I experience this every year. June arrives, school is over, and I am ready to ditch the routines! For a while, I tried to do it all in the summer: have fun, work like crazy, hobbies, and professional development. But now I treat summer as a season to do less, not more. Now I focus on being present. I indulge in late-night movies with my kids, a later start to my workday, and more vacation time.
When the last week of August arrives, I find myself mourning the end of summer. But a couple of days into the new routine, the 7 a.m. alarms start to feel good. I feel the energy of a fresh start and trade the summer activities for something new.
Going all in on one thing for a season means something else gets less of you. That’s the tradeoff that makes the meaningful stuff possible. Making lots of memories with my kids in the summer and working toward creativity and strength in the fall. Who knows what winter will bring.
Zoom in on any single season of your life, and it can look wildly lopsided. But zoom out across the years and a different picture will emerge.
A Tiny Experiment
Think about it: Zoom out on the last few months. What season were you in? What are you ready to step into?
Try this: Pick one small tweak from the list above. Just 1. Try it for a week. Keep what works. Drop what doesn’t.
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