Motherhood, back-to-school routines, and remembering that your goals deserve a place on the calendar too. 

September always gets me. There is something about back-to-school season that makes it incredibly obvious just how much we hold as moms. New schedules, practices, forms, appointments, groceries, who needs new shoes, who has to be where and when. This year, with three teenagers all moving into different seasons of their own lives, I feel it more than ever.

The funny thing is, we are really good at being accountable to everyone else. If my kid needs to be somewhere at 7:00, I'll make it happen. If something needs to be signed, bought, booked, remembered, packed or picked up, somehow it gets done. Yet the workout I promised myself? The idea I wanted to work on? The appointment I've been meaning to make? Those are often the things that can quietly get pushed to tomorrow.

I don't think that's because we're lazy or unmotivated. I think when you're the person everyone relies on, your own commitments become the easiest ones to renegotiate. Nobody is standing at the door waiting for you to go for your run. Nobody is texting to make sure you spent the hour working on the idea you've been talking about. There isn't a permission slip coming home reminding you that you said this season was going to include you too.

This is one of the reasons I believe so deeply in accountability coaching, and why I need accountability in my own life too. Being capable doesn't mean you should have to hold everything yourself. Knowing what you want doesn't automatically mean you'll protect the time and energy required to make it happen.

Sometimes accountability is another person. Sometimes it's putting the workout in the calendar before the week fills up. Sometimes it's telling a friend what you're going to do. Sometimes it's joining a room where people will notice when you keep talking about the same thing but aren't actually moving on it.

For me, good accountability has never been about someone policing my life or checking whether I completed a list. It's having people and practices around me that bring me back to what I said matters, especially when life gets busy and it would be easier to put myself last again.

Maybe that's why I love the feeling of September so much. We spend all this energy getting our kids ready for their next season, and I think it gives us a pretty good opportunity to ask ourselves the same question.

What does this season look like for me?

Not once everyone else is settled. Not if there's extra time. Not January 1st. Now.

Maybe you need to move your body again. Maybe there's something in your business you've been circling. Maybe you need more time with your partner or your friends. Or maybe you've spent so many years being needed that you're starting to wonder what you want as your kids begin to need you differently.

You don't need ten new goals. Pick one thing that matters to you and create some accountability around it. Put it on the calendar. Tell someone. Ask for support. Make the commitment to yourself just as real as all the commitments you keep for everyone else.

Because the person everyone else relies on deserves someone in her corner too.

And sometimes that someone needs to be you.

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