Most people try to overhaul everything in September. Successful people focus on one or two habits that anchor their entire day.
September can change so much—the days are getting shorter, there is a gentle crispness in the air, and the leaves start to change colour and fall, all reminding us that letting go can be a beautiful thing.
But with September, other changes to our routines can be overwhelming. Slow summer nights turn into busy sport and activity routines, mornings can go from calm to chaos, and the workday never seems to be long enough. Back to the office, back to school, back to routines filled with activities, meetings and commitments. It can all feel overwhelming.
With more on our plate, more decisions to make, and less time to do it all, many people feel like their healthy habits disappear. After-dinner summer walks are left behind, fresh farmers’ market salads become less frequent, and slow mornings with coffee on the deck seem to vanish overnight. But is trying to keep it all going with so much more on the calendar realistic? Or even possible?
After years of coaching women on their health and wellness, one thing I have learned is that when we try to create too many changes at once, it can lead to overwhelm. Suddenly, motivation becomes the only thing getting us out the door for that brisk walk.
This is when anchor habits do the heavy lifting and become your greatest advantage. Anchor habits are small habits that create stability when life gets busy. They happen automatically, reduce decision fatigue and, most importantly, become part of who you are. So rather than adding more things to your to-do list, anchor habits help define your lifestyle.
Anchor habits tend to work best in the morning. Our mornings are the time of day we tend to have the most control over. Creating a calm, intentional morning creates momentum.
Anchor habits work best when they’re attached to something that already happens every day. Imagine waking up an hour before the rest of your household. You hydrate and take your morning supplements, stretch while your coffee is brewing, meditate for 10 minutes or do a gratitude practice, build yourself a healthy breakfast while writing a priorities list for the day or week. The feeling of peace and calmness surrounds you, rather than starting your day chaotically, feeling rushed, late and behind before you even get started.
One of my other favourite anchor habits is to “meal think” for five minutes during this first hour. This is to simply consider what dinner will be tonight. Perhaps check the fridge for salad ingredients or the cupboards to see if you have enough grains. The “meal think” concept can make your dinner decision time feel like a breeze. Because at the end of a workday, after making countless decisions all day long, coming up with a dinner idea can be exhausting night after night. But if we use this five-minute “meal think” trick we can avoid the doom stare into the fridge at 6 p.m., hoping something is going to jump out at us.
When our day starts out calm and centred around our health, there is a ripple effect that carries us throughout the day. We have more energy, better focus, make better food choices, feel less stressed, and can consistently feel less like you’re playing catch-up and more like “you’ve got this.” Those benefits extend into every area of your life—from work and home to your physical and mental well-being.
Remember, progress and consistently showing up for your personal health is the goal. Some days lunch won’t be ideal. Dinner might be later than planned or ordering out might be what happens. Being gentle to ourselves in those moments is important because success isn’t about perfect days. Success is having habits you can return to, day after day.
Try to choose one or two anchor habits and repeat them daily. Eventually, these aren’t things you do—they become part of who you are. Let consistency do the heavy lifting and allow yourself to be the calm in the chaos.
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