Why Fall Is a Good Time to Begin Pondering the Year Ahead

There’s a point every fall when the year ahead starts feeling close enough to think about, even if you’re nowhere near ready to choose your Word of the Year. After more than twenty years of choosing a Word, I’ve learned that it rarely appears on command simply because January is getting closer. The clues usually show up earlier, in the surprisingly good parts of the year, the things you’re tired of, the things you keep wishing you had more time for, and even the things that seemed terribly important in January but barely matter now. Somewhere in all of that, next year begins to take shape.

Fall happens to be a lovely time for this because you’ve lived enough of the current year to know something about it. The plans you made in January have had plenty of time to meet reality. Some worked beautifully. Some wandered off without leaving a forwarding address. Other things you never planned for at all may have become important. And you still have enough distance from the holidays that you can think about what all of that means without feeling as if you need to produce a set of resolutions before dessert.

I’m not suggesting we rush the calendar. I love fall far too much to turn October into January’s waiting room. But there’s something useful about beginning the Word of the Year process before you’re trying to choose a Word. You can look at the life you’ve actually been living, rather than the life you thought you’d be living when the year began, and get curious about what you might want to carry with you into the next one.

What Do You Want More or Less Of in the Year Ahead?

By fall, you’ve lived with this year long enough to have opinions about it. You know which parts of your life have been genuinely good for you and which ones have been quietly nibbling away at your patience since sometime around March. Maybe you want more dinners at the table, more time with people you actually like, more books, more movement, more laughter, or mornings that don’t begin with reaching for your phone. And sometimes it’s even easier to see what you’re ready to have less of: rushing, clutter, obligation, resentment, or all those things you somehow became responsible for without any memory of volunteering for the position.

You don’t need to turn this into a giant audit of your entire existence. Start with the things that have been getting your attention anyway. Think about the moments you’ve genuinely looked forward to and the things that have helped you feel more like yourself. Notice where you keep wishing for more time, and where you’re already sighing before you even begin. I’m especially interested in the things you’ve been calling “fine” for months even though, darling, you and I both know perfectly well they are not fine. By October, some of those answers are much harder to ignore than they were back in January.

This is one of the places I begin in A Guiding Light for 2027 because what you want more of and less of can tell you quite a lot about the year ahead before you ever start thinking seriously about a Word. The workbook also asks how you want to feel and which desires keep returning even after you’ve tried to dismiss them as impractical, inconvenient, or something you ought to have outgrown by now. You don’t need to know what any of it adds up to yet. For now, it’s enough to notice what keeps asking for your attention.

What Do You Want to Finish, Release, or Carry Forward?

Fall is also a good time to look at what you don’t want following you into another year simply because it’s been hanging around long enough to feel permanent. Maybe there’s something you genuinely want to finish before December 31. A project that’s close enough to done that you’d love the satisfaction of closing it out. An appointment you’ve rescheduled three times. A room that’s been irritating you every time you walk past it. A conversation you know you need to have. Some things really do deserve the pleasure of being finished.

But not everything needs to cross the finish line just because the calendar is changing. Some things deserve to be abandoned with enthusiasm. A goal can stop making sense. An obligation can outlive its usefulness. Something you wanted badly in January can feel completely irrelevant by October, and that doesn’t mean you failed. It means you’ve had most of a year to gather better information. There’s no medal for dragging something into the year ahead simply because an earlier version of you once decided it belonged there.

And then there are the things worth carrying forward. Maybe a habit made your days easier. A friendship deepened. A new interest appeared and still has your attention. Perhaps you became a little braver about something that once intimidated you or rediscovered a pleasure you’d forgotten you missed. Those things matter too. The year doesn’t have to be declared a roaring success or a complete disaster before deciding what deserves another season of your attention.

What Is Beginning to Call to You for Next Year?

This may be my favorite part because you don’t have to know yet. By fall, something may already be beginning to tug at you when you think about the year ahead. Maybe there’s a place you want to visit, a class you want to take, a book you want to write, or a subject you suddenly can’t stop reading about. Maybe you want a quieter home, a stronger marriage, more room for creativity, or more time for a part of yourself that’s been getting whatever scraps are left over. Or perhaps there isn’t a clear goal at all. You simply keep returning to a feeling you’d like more of next year: peace, courage, delight, adventure, stability, faith, curiosity.

You don’t need to turn any of that into a five-step plan before Thanksgiving. Some ideas need to sit around for a while before you know what they’re really asking of you. One desire may deepen once you give it some attention. Another may lose its shine when you realize you liked imagining it more than you’d enjoy living it. And sometimes what looks like one desire at first turns out to be pointing toward something else entirely.

That’s why I like giving these thoughts some room in the fall. You can be curious without demanding an answer. You can notice what keeps returning, what feels unexpectedly exciting, and what has started to matter more than it did six months ago. None of it has to become a commitment yet. You’re simply paying attention to what might deserve a little more space in the year ahead.

You Don’t Have to Rush the Year Ahead

There’s something lovely about letting yourself think about next year before the holiday rush begins, while fall still feels like fall and nobody has yet asked you to locate three extension cords, two missing ornaments, and the one recipe everyone insists you make even though nobody remembers where it came from. You’ve got a little breathing room right now, and that makes this a good time to wonder about the year ahead without immediately turning every thought into a plan.

Think about what you want more of and what you’re thoroughly ready to have less of. Decide what deserves to be finished, what you’re willing to release, and what has earned the right to come with you. Then pay attention to the ideas, desires, and curiosities that keep showing up without demanding that they explain themselves before Christmas.

None of this requires an answer today. That’s part of the gift of starting in the fall. You have time to sit with what this year has taught you and let your thoughts about the year ahead take shape at their own pace. January will arrive soon enough. There’s no need to drag it into October before you’ve even finished enjoying the leaves.

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Get your Free Word of the Year for 2027Workbook:
A Guiding Light for 2027: Discover Your Word of the Year

This newly revised 64-page workbook is designed to help you do much more than choose a pretty Word for your planner. You’ll spend some time looking back at the year you’ve lived, thinking about what you want from the year ahead, exploring more than 1,100 possible Words and phrases, and discovering the Word that feels like it belongs with the life you actually want to be living.

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