It’s summertime here in the northern hemisphere and pitta season is in full force! Longer days inspire us to get more done and Pitta gives us lots of energy. It can feel like you’re brimming with ideas and inspired to start a ton of new projects.
However, once summertime winds down and we enter fall and winter - you may find yourself wondering what happened. All this time has gone by, yet the projects you started in the heat of your Pitta-driven summer are still incomplete. You haven’t achieved your goals and may feel disappointed or worse, overwhelmed.
If this sounds like something you’ve experienced, keep reading to find out more about how to balance Pitta this summer so that you can accomplish your big summer projects! Hint: It’s all about being intentional!
Set Your Values, Align Your Goals
Our values are our guiding lights in life and business. They help ground us and allow us to be more intentional in our actions. Without these values, we can feel lost and directionless. We may also end up taking on projects that aren’t aligned. In the summertime, when we are full of Pitta energy to start new projects, it is crucial to introduce some Kapha energy for balance and to ground us - that’s where our values come in.
If you haven’t already, I recommend taking some time to set five personal and/or business values. You can spend some time with candles in your personal CEO (or HQ) Ceremony to meditate and journal about what your values are as an entrepreneur. I have mine written out on a board where I can see them every day. It serves as a great reminder about my focus and direction I want for my life.
These values serve as lighthouses to guide your decision-making, especially as new ideas and projects come up in summer. Check that you are setting goals that are in alignment with your values. If there is a mismatch or it doesn’t fit with your values, it’s OK to say “no, thanks” or “not right now”!
You can also use your values as a reference when setting boundaries around your time, energy, and money – more on this below.
Practice Project Management
Once you know that your project or idea is in alignment with your values, you can start planning how to accomplish it. Start by setting SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic, and Timely. Most importantly, pay close attention to setting an aligned and timely goal. If we try to work towards goals that aren’t aligned with our hearts, it can become a struggle. I also recommend setting goals for a 12 week period, taking a week to plan at the start and a week to evaluate outcomes at the end.
Next, get clear about the outcomes from your head and heart. Changes will inevitably come up and circumstances change. Getting focused on the outcomes you desire by listening to both your head and heart helps to balance the Pitta energy of doing. Meditate and look within to discover - Is this what I'm supposed to be doing right now? Is this benefiting not only myself but the world around me?
Finally, list out all possible tasks you need to do to accomplish this goal or complete this project. Remember to include time to think, research, plan, and make decisions! Map all of these tasks out over 12 weeks or your specific timeframe for the goal. For more guidance on this, check out one of the books I love: The 12 Week Year.
Get Clear on Your Boundaries
As you move into working on your projects and bringing your ideas to life, something that will help you ground down and achieve your goals in the summer is getting clear on your boundaries.
The first area to set boundaries is with your time. Time blocking is an easy and effective way to safeguard portions of your time for certain activities or projects. It also gives you a clear perspective about how much time you have to dedicate to new goals and whether you have the capacity to take on new projects. For more guidance on how to implement time blocking in your life, check out Time Management 101 mini-course.
Getting clear on your energy is also important to accomplish your big summer projects. If you are already exhausted and burned out but decide to take on another goal, it’s not likely to happen. You simply do not have the energy to see it through - whether that’s physical, mental, or emotional energy. So ask yourself: Do I have enough energy to push through to make this happen?
The final aspect of setting boundaries is around your money. Most of us have limited financial resources. This means investing money in one project may take it away from another. We have to carefully consider the financial exchange of energy - where we want to direct our finances and how we can best achieve our desired outcomes. This may look like setting boundaries such as only accepting a loss of X amount of money, or only diverting funds away from one project for a set amount of time. Also, ask yourself if the investment serves your higher purpose. If it does, commit to that one thing for its entirety to see a return on your investment in the future.
Stay Accountable
It may seem boring but accountability is a powerful way to help you achieve your goals. This can take different forms. One source of accountability is yourself (or God, a higher power, the Universe). Take time to reflect inward and be true to yourself - do you have time, energy, space, or capacity for something else to be added to your plate? If the answer is yes, go full force with it.
Another element of accountability can come from practicing time blocking. To be able to work on a project or see your big summer ideas through, you need to make room for it during your day or week to work on it. Putting it in a time block on your calendar is a good way to ensure you stay accountable and complete it.
Finally, external accountability is an effective tool to help you stay accountable. Having someone else be a part of your process to check in and to turn to when things don’t go according to plan keeps us on track to achieve our goals. An external perspective, whether from a coach, colleague, or friend, can be useful to reevaluate our actions and guide our progress toward our desired outcomes.
Summer is great for exploring new projects and diving into new ideas. Be sure to balance this Pitta energy by taking time to ground yourself, focus, and be intentional. You’ve got this!
If you would like to call in some external accountability to achieve your big summer goals, I’d love to invite you to hop on a 1:1 Clair-ity call with me! I can’t wait to help you take concrete steps toward building the stress-free wellness biz of your dreams and achieving your goals. Book your call here!