October 2026 Monthly Intention: Small Steps Toward Scary Goals
Happy October! It's already the final quarter of the calendar year. How are you doing on your goals? I was hoping to have a draft of a book completed by now, but I don't. I spent too much time on a volunteer position helping others instead of doing my own hard work my January self thought would be possible.
Now I have to decide if that goal is still important to me or if I want to focus on something else. Luckily, I don't have to make a final decision today.
In fact, I can use this month as an opportunity to take small steps towards something a little scary. I like to imagine that all the Halloween decorations are cheering me on toward trying something a little scary.
My first scary/challenging goal is to build a new habit. I notice I've been rushing a lot. The habit I'd like to build is to take time during the day to do a few breathing exercises. I need to start small, so I plan to take two slow, deep breaths a few times a day. Two breaths feels doable and might lead to doing three, which would make me feel like I’m crushing it!
My biggest obstacle is forgetting to take the breaths, so I’m going to stack my exercises with things I'm already doing to make it easier to remember to do them. I commit to taking 2 slow, deep breaths before a meeting and before I eat.
What is something you would like to make progress on this month?
The second scary goal is to stop avoiding my book and figure out what I want to do. There is a voice in my head telling me I need to work on it every day, but that feels like too big a step. Instead, I commit to thinking about it every day. I don't have to do anything except acknowledge that it's there and see what happens. At the end of the month, I imagine it will be easier to decide if it’s something I want to work on for the rest of the quarter.
Because tracking sheets help me focus and give me the joy of checking something off, I will use my October sheet to record how I'm doing with my new breathing habit and that I thought about my book. The past two months I've tried to write more on the tracking sheet but found that it became a chore. This month I will be more flexible with checkmarks instead of notes.
What small step could you take toward something a little scary this month?
Interested in previous October Tracking Sheets?
