How to Make The Most of Summer

Happy Summer!

I hope that the weather has been as wonderful for you as it has been here in Chicago! Now that we’re entering a new season, the big question I’ve been asking myself lately is “How do I want to make the most of this summer?” And this is the tip I’d like to offer to you this week: to ask yourself the same thing.

Summer is typically the time where people want to take advantage of the warmth and do some of the really fun things before we head back into either “hibernation mode” or “back to the grind mode” in the fall (at least for those of us who really experience seasons): travel, backyard BBQs, outdoor sports and much, much more. For those of us who are parents, we may want to focus on doing the things we can’t do when our kids are in school. At the same time, many of us who work as business owners or in Corporate America don’t have the luxury of completely shutting down our work, so we may be focusing on how to place a heavier emphasis on play, while still maintaining a reasonable level of productivity at work.

For me personally, I have always envisioned my ideal lifestyle to include a more laid-back summer, where I can enjoy my kids while they’re out of school, and be able to choose to work at a lower capacity than I’m used to. The last few years of getting my business up and running haven’t really given me the opportunity to take action on implementing this, but I am feeling a calling to work on this over the next 10 weeks or so. Frankly, this is going to be (and already has been) an uncomfortable process for me, because I’ve always enjoyed being a high-achieving individual, and it’s almost as if I’m trying to break from a nasty addiction right now. But, in order to make substantial change toward something you want, it’s sometimes necessary to sit in that discomfort. So, that is what I’ll do!

So back to you: what are you hoping to focus on during these next few months? In order for you to have a successful summer, what needs to happen? What uncomfortable thing might you try to embrace in order to grow personally?

Enjoy the warm sun!