My second kid, Sofía, is now 25 and teaches school. However, every year since she was a little girl, I would hear the litany of “freshly sharpened pencils, walking through crunchy leaves, etc.”.
Why? Not sure, but I see this anticipation of school and fall weather in the professional sphere as well.
We have learned to identify this time of year as a moment when prospective clients – as well as current ones! – are particularly open to our message.
I think there is something inherent in the way that people are wired whereby they are periodically motivated to be responsive to messages of renewal and order. We see this three times a year, generally:
End of year/beginning of the year: I’m sure you’ve guessed this – New Year resolutions. For some reason, the calendar date prods folks into moving on those promises sworn at night to their significant others/best friends/confidantes that “Next year will be better!”. Guess what? It’s next year.
Spring time: Call it spring cleaning, a desire to do something different after the inertia of winter, but we get another appreciable uptick in receptivity to our message during the beginning of the second quarter.
Fall/back-to-school: A mini version of the first one listed above; “gotta make sure I’m ready for the new school year”. The benefit to getting into gear before the bell rings is that you are one step ahead of the competition that doesn’t think about goals until the end of the year – or later when it’s time to for spring cleanup.
Get practical and make those desires a reality – let’s talk about ways that you can achieve your goals and dreams into bite-sized chunks. You can even go ahead and buy a new lunch box if you’d like.