Strategic Living: Intentional Transformation that Achieves Your Big Dreams

September is a time of transition. Here in Oregon, we’re shifting into autumn weather and it’s back-to-school time. It reminds us of the thrill of fresh starts, new beginnings and renewed focus. This time of year fills me with anticipation and excitement. It’s my season for reviewing and preparing for next year, because strategic living involves knowing where I’m going, how I’m going to get there, and recognizing that I’m on the right path.

For high-achieving women, this season offers an invitation. The rhythm of the year naturally turns toward structure after the ease of summer. You have an opening to create intentional transitions in your life. Whether that means redefining how you approach work, deepening a relationship, or recommitting to a personal practice, the key to strategic living is not adding more but choosing with clarity.

Why Intentions Make Transitions Easier

Transitions can feel messy. It’s tempting to rush through them or distract yourself with busyness. Yet these moments hold power. A transition is the threshold between what was and what is becoming. When you pause long enough to step through it with awareness, you set yourself up for greater alignment, energy, and ease.

You know the difference between drifting into a new season versus claiming it with purpose. Drifting leads to over commitment and fatigue. Claiming it builds confidence and a sense of grounded direction.

A Different Kind of Transition

Here’s the paradox. Many high-performing women think of a transition and change as another project: a long list of goals, habits, or challenges to take on. That approach often creates more pressure than progress.

What if instead you allowed yourself to reset through subtraction rather than addition? Instead of “What more should I do?” ask, “What am I ready to let go of?”

Transitions become less about achievement and more about refinement. By releasing what no longer serves, you create the spaciousness for what matters most to take root.

Common Places for Intentional Shifts

If you’re considering where to place your attention this season, here are a few areas where intentional transitions often bring the greatest relief and reward:

Work and Career: Maybe it is no longer about working harder but about working in ways that feel aligned with your values. Can you shift toward projects that inspire you rather than drain you?

Relationships: September can be a good moment to nurture the relationships that truly matter. Where can you bring more presence and less obligation?

Personal Practices: Instead of a dozen routines, focus on one or two that genuinely sustain you. A morning walk, journaling, or weekly downtime can be enough to anchor you.

The point of these shifts is not to do more, but to do things differently and more mindfully, more in line with what matters to you.

 “Dream Big, Start Small.” Here’s the one thing you can do today.

If you’ve found yourself drifting through life or mindlessly existing, here’s a practice to help you move into intention.

Find a quiet spot. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and take a slow breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Imagine a threshold. In front of you, picture a doorway that represents your transition into this next season.

Notice your body. As you stand before the threshold, pay attention to how your body feels. Do your shoulders tighten because you’re apprehensive? Does your breath quicken because you’re excited?

Step forward. Slowly take one step across the imagined threshold. As you do, choose one word to carry with you into this new season. It could be consistency, clarity, ease, trust, or focus.

Anchor the word. Place a hand on your heart and repeat the word softly to yourself. Feel it settle into your body.

This brief exercise only takes a minute, yet it signals to your body and mind that you are choosing how to enter the next chapter.

Intentionally Choose Your Season

The natural world around us instinctively knows there are seasons for activity and seasons for rest, recovery, and renewal. When we tune in to and honor our own natural rhythm of transition, we can create a season that feels purposeful and aligned. For us in the Northern Hemisphere, September isn’t asking you to do more. It’s inviting us to be intentional about where our energy goes, which is at the heart of strategic living.

You deserve to move through life not in a rush but with clarity and presence. Let this be your moment to step through the threshold and choose, with intention, the life you want to create. 

Years ago, I began paying attention to the processes and systems that created the greatest impact on my life. Some are seemingly insignificant; others are breakthroughs. Combined, they form a roadmap for Stepping Forward into a life of meaning and fulfillment. I’ve compiled the seven tools that make the transition easier and more enjoyable in this free ebook: Introduction to The Stepping Forward Program. I invite you to download a copy today!

Thank you for the Fall reflections image Greg Rosenke