As we approach Labor Day weekend, it's time to think beyond barbecues and beach trips. Today' I'm teaching you about the concept I call "Labor Day Resolutions". This powerful idea could be the key to unlocking your most productive and balanced fall season yet.
Why Labor Day Resolutions?
Think about this special time of year as you would it's New Year's counterpart. It's the perfect time to pause, reflect and set intentional goals. However, there are many differences that make that make Labor Day Resolutions far better than New Years Resolutions:
Favorable weather: Unlike January, September still offers pleasant weather, making it easier to start and maintain new habits.
Less pressure: There's no cultural expectation to change overnight, allowing for more realistic goal-setting.
Back-to-school energy: Many people naturally feel a sense of new beginnings in September.
Less crowded gyms: Unlike January, fitness facilities are less packed in September.
Ayurvedic alignment: According to ancient Indian wisdom, fall is the perfect time to establish new structures in your life.
The Importance of Taking Action Now
Many of us love waiting for a new month or a new year to take action, but in this episode, you're encouraged to start now:
Every day that passes without action makes achieving your goals harder.
Waiting until things "settle down" is counterproductive, as life only gets busier towards the end of the year.
Burnout tends to increase as days get shorter and colder.
Proactive action now can prevent work-related stress from affecting your personal life later.
Creating Effective Labor Day Resolutions
To make your Labor Day resolutions stick, I recommend using the SMART goals framework many of us alreayd know and love:
Specific: Clear, well-defined goals
Measurable: Quantifiable objectives
Achievable: Realistic and attainable
Relevant: Aligned with your overall life goals
Time-bound: Set with a clear deadline
For example, instead of a vague goal like "work out more," try "work out three times a week by December." I also suggests breaking down your goal into monthly milestones, such as starting with exercise once a week in September and gradually increasing until you reach your 3x/week goal.
Maintaining Your Resolutions
I understand that you're busy, but I also know that every day that passes will be increasingly more challenging due to:
Unexpected work deadlines
Fluctuations in energy due to menstrual cycles
Changing weather and shorter days
To combat these challenges, I recommend:
Being specific about your "why" - understand the deeper reason for your goal
Planning for obstacles in advance
Leveraging the momentum of early fall to establish strong habits
Taking It to the Next Level
I want you to think about Labor Day Resolutions as you would consider earning triple points on a credit card for dining and travel- the rewards are multiplied when you take intentional actions. For those looking to maximize their success, I'm offering free 60-minute consultations to discuss a personalized strategy to help you achieving your goals with speed and precision.
Labor Day Resolutions offer a unique opportunity to set yourself up for success in the final months of the year. By taking action now, you can avoid the burnout and stress that often accompany the year-end rush. Remember, the best time to start was 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today. Why not make this Labor Day the beginning of your most productive and balanced fall yet?
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What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
Why Labor Day is the perfect time to set resolutions
The benefits of Labor Day resolutions over New Year's resolutions
How to create SMART goals for your Labor Day resolutions
The importance of taking action now to avoid burnout later
Tips for maintaining your resolutions throughout the fall and winter
Watch The Full Episode:
Full Episode Transcript:
# Billable Hour Burnout: Labor Day Resolutions
Hi, everyone, and welcome. We're getting started today with Billable Hour Burnout. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I am really glad to be here, and this is going to be a good one.
## Introduction
Today we're talking about Labor Day resolutions. Now I want to know how you're spending this Labor Day weekend. I'm getting in front of you before the weekend, before Monday. What are you doing? Are you going outside? Are you traveling? Are you doing house chores? Errands? Back to schooling? Are you working? Are you spending time with family and friends? I want to know.
But before you lock in your plans, I have to give you this message. You need to listen. Today's live. But first, let me welcome you to the show.
Welcome to Billable Hour Burnout. If you need helpful tactical advice that actually gives you the career of your dreams without the stress or overwhelm, you are in the right place. If you want to finally enjoy the life that you spent decades building, you are in the right place. If you find yourself here today, it means you're ready to experience more work-life balance, more ease, more confidence, and you're ready to do it without having to quit your job or burn down your life.
My name is Lauren Baptiste. I'm your big four auditor and regulatory tax consultant turned life coach. And this is Billable Hour Burnout. On the show, I share simple tactics, mindset strategies, specifically catered to the modern accountant, attorney and consultant. You ready? Let's do today's episode.
## Personal Updates
How's everyone doing? How's it going? It's Wednesday. I love it. I'm always checking myself. Are these on Wednesdays and on Thursday? Next week it's a Thursday. This week it's a Wednesday. I'm fitting it in between my client sessions, between life, but it's all good because I'm here for it, and I know you are, too.
If you're watching on the replay, give me a little hashtag replay and I can say hi, and how is it going? It's nice to see some live faces here. We're on LinkedIn and YouTube and Facebook, and I haven't said that in a while. And I'm also on Instagram, so we're in all the places.
I've had a whirlwind of a week. A lot has happened. I had my 9th wedding anniversary, which was so nice. My husband and I are traveling in a couple of weeks. And I have a lot of travel coming up, so we decided not to travel this year. We're like, let's keep it local and chill.
So we went to a driving range, which was really funny. I walked in there, and it's pretty obvious I knew nothing. I'm like, all right, so I'm going to need a couple of those clubs, and how do I get some balls and what do I do? So it was really fun, though. We had a good time hitting a couple buckets of balls, and then we went and had a really nice dinner not too far away.
That was a lovely anniversary. I can't believe it's nine years, and we're already thinking, like, what's ten? Like, what do we want to do next year? So that was really nice, and we had a really special moment. We got to look at our old wedding album and see all the beautiful photos. Yeah, time flies, right?
And then a few days later, I went to New York City. So you might have seen, I had a whirlwind trip into New York City, going from the Upper East Side to Soho, Chinatown, Flushing, Queens, Woodside, Queens, seeing friends I haven't seen in a while from different necks of the woods, seeing my grandma going to the US Open, it was a really fun weekend as well.
I'm happy to be home in my office, and I'm happy to be sharing with you today. So let's get into it so that you can have the best long weekend ever.
## Testimonial
All right, so let's start with a testimonial. This one comes from a controller that I worked with. She says:
"Lauren came at a pivotal moment in my life. It's like I'm a completely different person now. Lauren's approach was unique. She never pushed, rather guided me to see my own worth and make decisions that truly reflected who I want to be, whether it was my career, my relationships, or my health. She helped me look at everything from different angles and come to my own conclusions. I learned so much from her, not just in our sessions, but in the way that she lives her life. Lauren has this amazing ability to see the big picture and to be there patiently as you figure things out. It's hard to put things in words, how much she's impacted me, but I wouldn't be where I am today without her. I'm healthier, I'm more confident and more at peace, and I'm forever grateful for everything she's done for me."
So thank you so much to this amazing client that I worked with. You know, sometimes it's more taboo to share these really big changes because we feel that maybe male partners who see us or our directors or bosses are going to judge us or think something of us or kind of go against us. So sometimes, you're going to be getting anonymous testimonials. But they're sharing them because they know that the message needs to be shared, even if they don't put their face in front of it. So I share that with you because sometimes it's a little bit of a secret of who's sharing, but just hearing the words is so powerful and impactful.
## Labor Day Resolutions
Let's talk about Labor Day and resolutions, because I love this time of year, and I want to make sure that you are getting the most out of this time. If you don't, we know that every day that goes by only gets busier from here on out. Between now and when the ball drops on New Year's Eve, it is a sprint to the finish. It feels like every month progressively gets busier. And I heard someone even term it the September work hustle that we all know everyone's allowing each other to be quiet for the next week or so, but once we get back from Labor Day, we're off to the races.
I asked ChatGPT to tell me about Labor Day, because I have my feelings about Labor Day, right? I'm like, okay, it's a long weekend. It's about workers. Like, tell me more. And so, without going into all the details, but the first Labor Day was celebrated September 5, 1882, in New York City. I thought that was pretty cool. We also know that it kind of marks the end of the unofficial summer in the United States. And a lot of us use the time to relax, barbecue, parade, kind of hang out and get ready for back to school.
Now, from a historic perspective, it talks about the struggle for workers' rights and the idea for better working conditions. And as I thought and I read that, I was like, wow, we are still in that struggle. We're still looking for better working conditions. You know, now we're seeing how can we get more leave for moms? How do we get lactation rooms? How do we get more things to support the new mom and the new dad if they have a new baby? There's so much going on that we're still working on it. So from 1882 to 2024, we've still got work to go.
But what I think when I think of Labor Day, I'm here to remind you that you deserve to have a life where you, your family and your team don't have to work on a federal holiday or a weekend or after hours, every single day, Monday through Friday. It can be so much better.
So why I use this term, Labor Day resolutions. Maybe some of you have heard me say it before. I've been talking about this since my first business a long time ago, maybe 8-10 over ten years probably. At this point, Labor Day resolutions is what I found to be this really beautiful time of year where we can get into a routine.
Now I'm telling you this today, my women in accounting, law consulting, because we have a moment. The office is closed before the September work hustle picks up. I want to make sure that you have exactly what you need to take on these next four months. Because otherwise it can feel like another interim is about to begin. Another busy tax season is in full flop, full throttle. And I want you to feel like you have some control.
## Benefits of Labor Day Resolutions
When I think of this term, Labor Day resolutions, I really think this time for you is perfect. Because:
1. The weather is fabulous, right? We still have good weather. It's a little cooler, maybe where we are, but the sun is still out. The sun is still shining after work, and it's in the morning. We see the sun in the morning. We have warm weather and sun in our favor, whereas January, New Year's resolutions, we don't have that. It's cold, it's dark, and we want to stay in bed.
2. Now we have this opportunity for momentum. There's also no cultural expectations or pressures like New Year's resolutions. Everyone expects, like, we're going to be changed humans on January 1, and no one's expecting that on September 1 or 2, whenever Labor Day falls. There's no pressure. So it's all on you to be like, all right, this is for me. This is not for anyone else. There's no expectation. This is for me.
3. For some of us that have kids, what you may feel is the energy of back to school, this idea of having a solid routine. Many of you even come to me because you're like, I'm feeling ick. I'm feeling kind of gross after the summer. Too many barbecues, too many drinks, too many days not at the gym. So this is an opportunity to get your family back in the swing, but for yourself, too.
4. The benefit of Labor Day resolutions versus New Year's resolutions is that the gyms won't be packed like they are in January.
5. According to Ayurveda, which I talk about from time to time, which is the study of life or the wisdom of life, it's a science that comes back from an Indian lineage, dating over 3500 years or even older to like 5000 plus years. But in these old Vedic texts, it talks about now, September to January-ish, where we live being this perfect time to set up structure, to thrive in structure.
## Taking Action
So let's talk about why it's really important. Doing this is important because now is in your control. This moment to take action is in your control. You can decide right now that you're going to enjoy the final months of 2024 versus getting dragged through from back to school to Halloween, and then the holiday sprint to the end of the year on top of Q4, and interim and deadlines and overwork and overwhelm. Right. We know that it can be good, but we have to decide to.
So every day that passes that we don't take action is only making this harder for ourselves. You have a chance right now to change how things are going to be. And that's why I'm here today to hone in on this message for you, because it can get better, and it starts today.
Another day of not taking action is going to be another day of you not getting where you want to go. It's going to be another busy season of burnout. It's going to be you feeling dragged through the mud because you're not taking control of what you have control over. So in some ways, it can be that simple. I don't want you dreading or feeling anxious or feeling overwhelmed or wanting to throw in the towel. Let's decide that it can be better. And let's decide that that's now.
You may have heard the old proverb, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. We can't look back at 20 years or even the last two months if we let ourselves go. But we can decide right now to take action.
## The Problem of Inaction
So why Labor Day resolutions now we know, but I want to talk about why it's a problem if we don't take action now, because we can see that this sounds good in theory, like, all right, let's get it, let's do it. But I really want you to feel into a problem that it's creating if you don't take action. Because if you're not taking action right now, if you say, oh, wait, let me wait till my kids are back in school, or let me wait until this first deadline passes or get past, you know, let's just let things settle for a minute. The truth is, things are not going to settle. We know it progressively gets busier towards the end of the year. So taking action now, taking control now, is in your best interest.
As you may feel, there's like this creeping that happens when the weather changes and it gets colder as it gets darker. Burnout does rise. I see this every year. We think in the summer we're not burned out, but we just kind of suppress it for a moment while we sit on the beach. But it all starts to come to light again once the pressure cooker is back on.
And this isn't just a you problem per se, it shows up at work all of a sudden. Things take longer to get done. Your team is making more mistakes. You feel like you can't delegate. You feel like you have to do it all. And then all of a sudden that behavior of overwork really comes in. We start to see it. We start to see that it affects how you show up around your family. You either get home for dinner or you miss dinner altogether. Then you go back to work and then go to sleep. And then you wake up, work and repeat. It creates, at the end of the day, an unhappy you, a burnt out you.
And what I'm saying right now is when you take a small step of saying, I'm going to take charge of this weekend, this moment, then it can get better.
## Creating a Solid Routine
So how do we create a solid routine that doesn't die? I'm going to tell you that in a second. But when we talk about Labor Day resolutions, I want you to think about it as a New Year's resolution, but better. What do you want? What is it? What would feel really good between now and the end of the year to accomplish?
Maybe you want to work out three times a week. Let's use that as our hypothetical. But we know things are going to get busier. But we want to start working out three times a week. It's not seven, right? We're going to try to be realistic and it's more specific than just, I'm going to work out more. I want your goal to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. We want to make sure. I know I moved the letters out of order, but you're with me. I want to make sure that your goal is SMART.
So if by December, you want to be working out three times a week, does that mean you start in September 3 times a week or does September work? You work out once a week. October it's two, and then November, December 3. Right. Be really specific with what it looks like on the journey to getting there. Why are you wanting to work out three times a week? Is it because there's a weight goal involved? Is it because you want to feel stronger so that your lower back doesn't hurt after sitting at your computer all day? Is it so that you can run around with your family? Is it that you can run the turkey trot in November?
Get really specific on why you want to work out three times a week, and then we can start to build the how and get really clear on the actions we need to take to get there. And then the feelings we might want to have and then the thoughts that are going to drive that. This is the way that when you create a plan, you're using your mindset and tactics to achieve the goal. This is what I talk about with every client that I work with.
But here's what I know to be true. It can die off in weeks when a client comes in and says, hey, I need you to do something by tomorrow when you have a deadline and you have to hit something and then you have to sacrifice something else. In our menstrual cycle, you may be feeling really on. And then maybe your period comes and you feel really off. Maybe in the luteal phase, right before your period, you may feel like, I'm just tired, I'm exhausted, I don't feel good. These are some of the reasons why it can die off.
Also know two weeks from now, three weeks from now, it will be darker, it will be a little colder. I don't want that to happen to you. That's why I want you to take advantage of right now by using this weekend to set yourself up to your best regard.
## The Reward of Taking Action Now
Have you ever heard of credit card points? How you can get like three times on dining and travel when you use a specific credit card? This is how this weekend is. If you start now, you're going to get three times reward on the effort that you put in. The benefit will be there for you. And if you want a ten times reward, this is where you could take it with the next level.
All you have to do is book a consultation with me. It's a 60-minute call. It's absolutely free, where you and I discuss how you're struggling with, what it is that you want, and a clear step by step plan to get there. Let's not wait for things to get better. Let's decide that it gets better now.
This is why booking a consultation is the most valuable thing you can do this weekend. To say, you know what, yeah, I'm going to make it different this year. I've had so many controllers, partners, senior managers come to me because they're like, I don't want another rough season and I'll talk through it on other episodes because it is so powerful to see the results of taking this action proactively.
I'm even seeing in the comments right now. I have a consult later and I'm looking forward to our consult, too. So she said that in the comments, this is so amazing. This is the power of a consultation and I'm inviting you to take that action now. Even to the extent that I've opened up time on Labor Day, I want to make sure that you are really getting that ten X benefit without having to put in Ten X effort. This is the new way of leveling up. It's not about doing ten X more to get ten X more. It's about learning how to keep it going and go with the wind at your back to get the ten X benefit.
So this is today's episode. We're talking about Labor Day resolutions. What I really want you to be thinking about is working backwards where I want to be in December, what I need to do thinking now, what my smart goal is to getting there. And the step by step each of the way.
If you feel like you're halfway there and you need a little help, send me a DM. Let's talk about it. What's going on? What's the goal that you have? How can I help you get to that next step? Send me a DM and we'll talk. You can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, you can find me on Facebook, even YouTube. Right? You can put a comment anywhere and I will see it.
This is the best time. Truly take this moment now. Don't just dive into the weekend. Don't just work this weekend. Don't just let a weekend go and say, I'm going to wait, take charge. Now. You deserve better. Now it can be better. Now get excited, because when you finally do something for yourself, you're going to feel a whole shift in your well being, a shift in how you lead, a shift in how you work, a shift in all the free time that comes to you. This is what happens when you join this party.
All right, everybody, find me in all the places, wherever you hang. Let me know how this episode landed for you. Let me know what your Labor Day resolution is. I can't wait to hear. And if you're really ready to ten X it, book your consultation call now, grab that spot on Monday to get on my calendar and make sure that you have the best fall and 2025 ever.
All right, everybody, wishing you the best rest of your day. I'll see you next Thursday for our next episode. Talk to you soon.
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