September? Already? How on earth did that happen? I cannot believe how quickly this year is going.

And did you know that there are only 115 days until Christmas? No? Well you do now.

EEEEEEEP!

I don’t know about you, but every year I say I am going to start Christmas shopping early in order to spread the cost. Every year we do most of it in December. Tsk.

We have a huge family, and approximately half of them have their birthdays in the two weeks either side of Christmas. If we aren’t careful, it can turn into a ridiculously expensive time. This year I am on maternity leave, so money has to go a bit further (don’t get me started on maternity pay…) so we need to be extra careful. When I was on maternity leave with Big M we had what we called a “makey doey” Christmas. Basically we made as many presents as we could. It was fun and we surprised ourselves with our creativity. Our aim is to do it again this year, only this time we have Big M to help.

My Personal Challenge for September isn’t to have started the Christmas shopping/making (although if I have then that will earn me a gold star…). No, by the end of this month I want to have come up with ideas of who will be getting what so we can set about acquiring/making them. Because, let’s face it, given my nack for procrastination, I could end up being VERY busy on 23rd December…

If you took part in August’s challenge, don’t forget to tell us how you got on here.

Want to join in? You are very welcome. Just set yourself a goal for the next month – your very own Personal Challenge for September.

At the beginning of the month, decide what it is that you want to achieve over the next thirty days. It could be anything: losing a couple of pounds, getting the weeding done, making something, learning a new skill. Whatever you like. Putting my management hat on for a second: make sure it is something you can actually achieve in a month. Be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based).

Write a post about what you want to achieve and why. If you link back to this post then others can join in too – you can use the badge if you like (the code is over on the right there). Make sure you put the link to your post on the linky list at the bottom of this post (it’s open for two weeks). Use the opportunity to seek advice from/help out/support fellow bloggers. Then spend the next month attempting to achieve your goal. At the end of the month I’ll be back to let you know how I have got on with my personal challenge and there will be another linky for you to share your success. So come back and tell us how you got on and we can all give you a pat on the back.

Ready?

Set?

Go! Go! Go!