I have a confession:

I’m not good at getting my girls out the door in the morning to camp.

It ends up being chaotic. We run a few minutes late most of the time. I get irritated and they start acting out which only makes the whole thing worse.

I know it’s my energy around the situation that’s at least 90% of the problem.

The girls and I brainstormed possible solutions for making the morning transition out the door to camp easier while we drove over today.

Penelope’s idea? Have Banana (my Bonus Mom) come back every morning because she’s better at it than I am 🤣.

The idea that came next was quite brilliant (7-year-olds are so smart!)

Plus you and I can both use the essence of Penelope’s idea to transition as smoothly and easefully as possible from the free-form days of summer to more structure as fall approaches.

Keep reading to find out what my 7-year-old masterminded!

On the way to camp, we identified that one issue in our morning transition is the girls getting dressed.

The issue is that they don’t know where their bathing suits and tennis clothes are in the morning and we all end up running around looking between the laundry room, their bedroom, and the room where we fold the laundry on the bed.

So Penelope had the idea that at bedtime we should find the clothes they need for the morning so when they wake up they can put them on before they come downstairs for breakfast.

What does locating their camp clothes the night before have to do with you making a smooth transition to the back to school vibe of fall (whether or not you have kids)?

It all comes down to identifying that there’s a transition coming up, thinking through possible pitfalls you might encounter during that transition, and then honoring the transition not only by acknowledging it, but also by pre-emptively smoothing out the pitfalls if possible.

I know one of our pitfalls as we transition back to Miami and school next week could be needing to get out the door an hour earlier than we need to now for camp.

To prep, I’m going to make sure we have easy, healthy breakfast items ready to go so that breakfast happens smoothly.

And, I’m going to implement a uniforms on before breakfast policy so that after breakfast we can just brush teeth, put on shoes and get buns out the door.

What’s a potential pitfall for you in your autumn transition?

Perhaps it’s feeling sad about the lazy days of summer ending and giving way to stricter schedules. 

What’s something you could do to smooth out that pitfall?

I have an idea! Make space for your sadness. A feeling felt doesn’t end up getting stuck and weighing you down.

Make a playlist of songs that make you feel nostalgic about summer. Play it and let yourself feel that sweet longing grief as the days get shorter.

(Next week I’ll share a simple ceremony here in the Do Less Dispatch that you can do alone, with your family, or with friends to honor the changing of the season that gives space for celebration, grief, and intentions. It’s definitely something I’m gonna do with my kids next week before they start school so we can all step into the new season as powerfully as possible.)

Some of our transition pitfalls are logistical. Some of them are emotional. Some of them are both.

What I find is that when I think through the potential logistical pitfalls and plan for smoothing them out, I have more space to honor the emotional ones.

Then I don’t get stuck in the illusion that what’s causing the problem is time management.

90% of the time our time management problems are caused by our energy. And the vast majority of disruptions in our energetic field are caused by unfelt emotions.

Stay tuned next week for the easy ceremony to let your feelings about whatever transition you may be on the precipice of be felt (whether they’re about back to school, moving, a job change, divorce, kids going to college, a new business venture, or something else).

Here’s what we know:

Life is always gonna change.

Here’s what we can do about it:

Stop trying to pretend we don’t know these changes are coming and instead, slow down enough to honor them so that the bumps are smaller and our hearts grow bigger.

Whatever transition you find yourself about to go through or right in the middle of, you’re not alone.

Love,
Kate