The Best Month In Which To Change Your Life

September. That's the best month to make those massive changes in our lives, the ones we think about on Monday morning as we're getting ready to go to work.

On New Year's Eve we come up with resolutions. But most of them revolve around food, drink and spending. And everyone knows "resolution" is just a euphemism for "wishful thinking."

Why's September the best month to affect those changes? A number of reasons:

1. August is one sloooooow month. Everything closes down, it seems. But everything else starts up in September. People start looking around in September, because they know everyone's back from vacation. People are easier to reach - even in this age of 24/7/365 availability.

2. You've probably taken a vacation in June, July or August, in which your brain had a chance to rest, regroup, tell you it's not satisfied, and come up with ideas to increase its future happiness.

3. We're hard wired from 12 years of schooling (more if you went to college) and we still get this "beginning again" feeling when the "back to school" ads start to appear.

4. Admit it - those back to school supplies (pens, paper, notebooks, etc.) you're buying for your kids - they reach down inside you and extract feelings of change much better than stupid hats on New Year's Eve. Just take a whiff inside a Staples or Office Depot. See what I mean?

5. For those of us in the (in)temperate zones, summer's dying. It's holding on, losing its grip, just like your old life. Remember back to May or June - didn't everything seem fresher and newer back then, just a couple of short months ago? And now how does it feel? Kind of like your job or your life. Used. On the brink. Ready to fall off the cliff. OK, so I'm stretching the analogies. But I'm sure you get what I mean.

6. Winter starts beckoning. Or threatening. What better time to begin solid activity to change your life? There's still sunlight in the evenings, but there's an urgency now, as we can see it slowly slipping away. You really don't want to get the heavier clothes out. But we're going to have to. And you really don't want to continue your life in the way you're doing now. And you don't have to.

So change in September. Start a plan this month, or lay out a plan for next September. Or, if you can, chuck it all and start new right now. I know I am!