Maybe I Can® with Debbie Weiss

Ep. 141: Channeling Back-to-School Energy in Midlife

• Debbie Weiss • Episode 141

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As summer comes to a close, I’ve been thinking a lot about how endings and beginnings are so deeply connected. September has always felt like a “second New Year” to me — a time to reset, get curious, and open myself up to new possibilities.

In this episode of Maybe I Can, I share why September feels like such a natural reset point, the small shifts I’m focusing on for the season ahead, and why I believe you only need one new possibility to spark meaningful change.

I’d love for you to listen and reflect with me: What’s your “one thing” you want to explore or shift this fall?

💛 If this episode resonates, let me know in the comments or send me a message — we’re in this together.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the I Can Podcast. I'm your host, debbie Weiss, and thank you so much for joining me today. As I'm recording this, it is actually Labor Day weekend. I can't believe it. I can't believe that the summer is already over, and that's what I want to talk to you about today, and I need this. So I'm talking to you and to myself simultaneously, because I don't know about you, but as summer winds down, do you find yourself clinging to the fact that summer's ending, or getting curious about what's ahead? Or getting curious about what's ahead For me?

Speaker 1:

I have to say that, you know, as I notice the days getting shorter and it's not as light, as late, it's sad to me and I also feel like I didn't do everything that I wanted to do this summer, and so I just can't believe how time has just flown by. But then, on the flip side, okay, fall has actually always been one of my favorite seasons. I might be weird in saying this, but as a little girl, I loved back to school. I loved getting a new dress and shoes and pencils and pens and new notebooks, and remember how we used to like wrap our textbooks in paper bags. I mean, I remember I couldn't wait to be old enough that I actually got a textbook and that I could wrap it in a paper bag. It was those first few days of school and I remember, even if it was 90 degrees, I always insisted on wearing that long sleeve dress that we bought and I'd come home with like blisters on my feet, sweating like crazy. But I was excited because I got to wear my new stuff and I think September, even if we're not in school anymore, it still feels like a new beginning. It's almost like a second New Year's in a way. Right, because we're leaving the summer behind, which tends to just be more relaxing and less structured, and so many people take vacation and it's just, you know, less traffic on the roads, depending upon where you live, but in the New York metropolitan area, it's very nice that the roads are less crowded and next week or a couple of days from now, when it's Tuesday, boom. Everything is going to change. And so, just like everything, we have two different ways, or probably more, that we can look at it. We can look at it as being sad of what we're leaving behind and dreading that we're stepping back into structure and reality, back into structure and reality. Or we can flip that and say I'm leaving this season behind. I'm grateful for it, but, wow, I wonder what fall is going to bring. Be curious what are your plans? Do you have any specific plans Now, even though we're not going back to school, maybe there's something new that you're going to explore.

Speaker 1:

Right, september is a great time to enroll in a dance class or art class or I don't know. Learn to play mahjong, whatever it is, I don't know. Learn to play mahjong, whatever it is, you know, maybe you can find something like that and focus on the possibility of what else is out there. September is a great time for that, right? So many things are starting back up and new, different classes and that kind of thing. We've got to celebrate something new. Is there something else that you've always wanted to explore? So, maybe it's not a class, maybe it is a ritual. I don't like the word ritual, I can't think. I guess I'm thinking of a habit, right? Maybe it is. It is. Oh, I said I was going to meditate and I never really do it, and maybe you're going to say this is what comes September, which is today, as you're listening come September, this is what I'm going to do Meditating, journaling, exercising.

Speaker 1:

Now I can share with you a few things that I am looking forward to in the fall. I've got a lot of cool stuff going on. I have a speaking engagement that I'm doing in the middle of September, and I'm actually taking a little vacation with my cousins and my friend to the San Diego area. Well, one night in Las Vegas to see the Eagles at the Sphere for the third time I know it's a problem and then we're going to drive from Las Vegas to San Diego because one of my cousins has a work event there, and so we're just all joining her and hanging out and seeing San Diego. I think I'm the only one of the four of us who's never been there, so I'm very excited about that, and I'm also waiting for my sprinkle effect card deck to be delivered. Right now. They're on a boat headed this way, so I should have them in about oh, maybe four to six weeks. So I'm super excited about that. And I'm also in the middle of a project of creating a sprinkle of gratitude journal, and I'm super, super pumped about that. There are so many exciting good things to look forward to. There are so many exciting good things to look forward to, and, on a personal level. I'm going to share this with you.

Speaker 1:

If you've been listening to me, you know that my life has been defined by how much I weigh and diets and being overweight and the whole thing. And over the last several months I have gained some weight and it's really bothering me and so it's time. You know it's weird. So many people actually lose weight in the summer. For me it's just the opposite. I don't know why, I think in my mind I almost think it's like oh, it's a party, and yeah, why not have this and why not have that? No big deal, and those no big deals have added up for me. I've also haven't had a consistent exercise schedule that I usually have, for a variety of reasons. One of them, the most recent, is that and I don't know if I told you guys this already, but a couple of weeks ago I was in New and I tripped and fell down on all fours hard, meaning my knees and my hands, and so since then I have a very bruised knee, so I haven't been able for the last few weeks to exercise because of that. But I'm healing and it'll be fine and I'm actually really looking forward into getting back into that exercise and paying attention to what I'm eating.

Speaker 1:

Routine right, it actually does feel good sometimes to get back into your routine. I remember that my neighbor, when our kids were younger and in school, she used to say that my neighbor, when our kids were younger and in school, she used to say my two favorite days of the year are the last day of school and the first day of school. Why? Because as of the last day of school, you can't stand the routine anymore. You don't want to deal with the homework and the activities and the buses and the play dates and like the whole thing. And then you have this summer and, oh my goodness, usually by like August 1st. You can't wait for the kids to go back to school. I think it's a. It's either a Walmart or a Target commercial, I don't know which one, I can't remember. I don't think I've seen it this year. But you know they show the parents like being all excited that school is going to start and that's kind of what this is. So when school's going to start, you're getting back into a routine. You're ready to get back into a routine and I am definitely ready to get back into a routine.

Speaker 1:

What about you? I hope you're going to join me in this, because I need your help. We've got to do this together. We have to be there for each other and cheer each other on and motivate each other. Do you have a specific intention? Just like this is my getting back into diet and exercise. Do you have anything like that? Do you have something where you're saying can I really do that? And instead you should be saying you know what's the name of the podcast, maybe I can try this, maybe I can do that? I want you to be really present in your thinking about this.

Speaker 1:

Don't leave it to chance, right, because the next thing you know what will be happening. It will be December and, of course, everything goes out the window the whole entire month of December. And so the next three months September, october, november nothing will have changed. You wouldn't have tried anything new. Maybe you'll be in a rut, and we don't want that. We've got three more months till December.

Speaker 1:

This is our second new year. What are you gonna do? Remember that Every time something ends, in this case summer it's really a new beginning in disguise, right, because we can concentrate on oh, summer's over, that is such a bummer. Or we can say well, this is exciting. We're moving into a new season. What's going to happen? What are the possibilities out there for me?

Speaker 1:

So, as we do move out of summer and into fall, what's one possibility you want to open yourself up to? Not five things, not the whole list One thing, the whole list, one thing. Because, as we know, when we overwhelm ourselves, when we say we're going to do all the things, what winds up happening? We do none of the things. Believe me, just one new thing. That's all. It takes this little sprinkle of possibility. It's like a little spark and when you do that, it really seeps into the rest of your life. It changes your overall attitude and overall feeling of life and it makes you realize that your life is full of possibilities. Regardless of the struggles that you might be going through right now, there is always something else that's possible right around the corner. Remember, it's these little, small shifts that create the biggest openings for possibilities.

Speaker 1:

I would love it if you would share with me what you're going to be doing in the fall. What are you excited about? What is your one possibility, your one, something new that you are going to open your mind to this fall? So please make sure to DM me at debbierweiss, or email me, debbie, at debbie r weisscom. There's nothing that makes me happier than hearing from you, right? Because, like I said, we're doing this together. I'm as much in it as you are, so I'll continue to share with you how I'm doing with all of the goals I don't want to call them goals, but all of the possibilities that I'm opening myself up to in this coming season, and so I'd love to hear yours as well. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I really look forward to talking to you again next week.

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Debbie Weiss

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