Mark Alan Fish

Welcome to September.

Or, as some might say, the beginning of the BER months:

SeptemBER. OctoBER. NovemBER. DecemBER.

Four months. One-third of the year. And apparently the season when pumpkin spice becomes less of a flavor and more of a governing ideology.

But before we surrender ourselves to sweaters, falling leaves, holiday decorations, year-end deadlines, and pumpkin spice being added to things that never asked for it, this feels like a good moment to pause.

Because somehow, we’re already two-thirds of the way through 2026. And the last third tends to move fast.

Here Comes the Rush

For many of us, September brings a renewed sense of order. Summer vacations wind down. Kids go back to school. Calendars start filling up again.

In workplaces everywhere, attention turns toward finishing OKRs, hitting milestones and revenue targets, preparing year-end evaluations, and beginning budgets and plans for 2027. Outside of work, there may be goals we promised ourselves we’d accomplish this year, projects we wanted to finish, or changes we wanted to make.

And waiting just around the corner is a full calendar of holidays that can make October through December feel like somebody hit the fast-forward button.

Suddenly, it’s New Year’s Eve, and we’re singing Auld Lang Syne, wondering, Wait. What happened to September?

But it hasn’t happened yet. We still have four months ahead of us, and rather than treating that as a reason to hurry, I think it’s a reason to pause.

September Gives Us Something January Can’t

January gets a lot of attention. New year. New goals. New resolutions. New planners. New gym memberships. We’re encouraged to decide what we want the year ahead to look like before we’ve actually lived any of it.

September offers us something January can’t: perspective.

We now have eight months of information. We know what worked, what didn’t, what changed, and what surprised us. We have a better sense of what still matters — and perhaps what no longer does.

So instead of asking how much we can possibly cram into the next four months, perhaps the better question is: Given what I know now, how do I want to live the rest of this year?

That’s a very different way of thinking about the rest of the year.

You Can Choose Again

Maybe you set a goal in January that quietly fell by the wayside. No judgment. But you don’t have to wait until January 2027 to start again. Four months is plenty of time to begin something, change something, complete something, or simply make meaningful progress toward something that matters.

And maybe one of those January goals doesn’t matter anymore. That’s okay too. Changing direction isn’t necessarily quitting; sometimes it simply means you’ve learned something.

This is where two principles that guide both my life and my coaching become especially useful: Live with Presence. Create with Intention.

Presence asks me to notice where I actually am — not where I thought I would be by now, where somebody else thinks I should be, or where January-Me decided I needed to be. Intention asks me what I want to do with what I know now.

Not Everything Has to End on December 31

I’ve recently set ten meaningful goals for the next chapter of my own life. Some will carry me through the end of this year; others extend into next spring, when the lease on my Boise Base Camp ends.

And I like that.

December 31 is a calendar boundary. For some things, it absolutely is a finish line. But it doesn’t have to be one for everything. The universe is not standing there at midnight with a clipboard saying, “Sorry. Goal incomplete. Better luck next year.”

The point isn’t to squeeze everything neatly into 2026 so I can put a giant checkmark beside the year and declare myself victorious. The point is to know where I am, decide where I’m heading, and make sure the two still align.

Maybe that’s what September can offer all of us — not another deadline, but a checkpoint.

RememBER

So here we are: SeptemBER. OctoBER. NovemBER. DecemBER.

The calendars will fill. The holidays will arrive. Budgets will get finalized. Plenty will need to get done. And someone, somewhere, will inevitably try to put pumpkin spice into something that absolutely does not require pumpkin spice.

Before all of that happens, take a moment to pause, reflect, and realign. Remember what mattered when this year began and what you’ve learned since. Remember that you’re allowed to change your mind. And remember that you don’t need January’s permission to begin again.

Most importantly:

There is still a third of the year left to live — not merely to complete.

So don’t just rush toward December 31. Look up. Notice where you are. Decide what matters now. And consciously choose how you want to live the months ahead.

Live with Presence. Create with Intention.

And as we head into the final four months of 2026…

RememBER what matters.