When you were in school, you started fresh each year with new teachers, new books, new friends, a new grade, and new classes. You started out with a 4.0 grade point average and it was up to you make or break it.

As you got older and became a working woman, that back-to-school mentality stayed with you. Around August and September, when you see the school buses on the roads and children on the corners waiting for the bus, first you thank heaven that you don’t have to go to school; then you get that feeling of renewal.

This is the ideal time and place for you to pause and consider what is important to you and your family.

Make sure you are only putting things on your plate that belong there. What in your life can you do without? What have you been doing without that should be there?

For example, a friend of mine who owns a business recently went to Thailand on a mission. She had always wanted to do this, but was discouraged from doing so. She finally decided to put the needs of her business and family aside for a few weeks while she went away and did something that she has always wanted to do. She wishes she had done it sooner, but is ecstatic to have finally done it.

Is there something that you have always wanted to do but keep putting off?

On the other hand, take a look at your month-at-a-glance calendar. What items are on it that no longer offer gratification? Review the associations that you belong to, the clubs that you volunteer for, and the positions that you hold in these organizations. Do you do it out of obligation, guilt, or because nobody else will? Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate what you give of yourself and be sure that your slate only has on it what you want to be on it. The rest will take care of itself.

So let’s declare Back-To-School as Back-To-Work for Working Women! It’s your time to begin anew. Refreshing, isn’t it?

----------