I postmortem each month shortly after it ends, reflecting on what happened in general and, more specifically, in the context of my goals. Though I don’t share all my insights here, I have made it a practice to share at least one key highlight or insight. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

My novel didn’t get a moment of work in August, though I figured as much before the month began—we had a longer stint of travel into France planned while my regular work continued, and I knew I could only keep so many balls in the air at the same time.

The break puts me behind schedule for my goal of having a completed draft by the end of 2021, though I haven’t given up on the objective quite yet. I believe that the autumn months will shake out such that I’ll have more time to dedicate to my fiction and can make up the gap.

However—and who knows what changed in only a few weeks—I did feel more competent with my French on this trip across the French-Swiss border, as compared to how I felt when I reported in during my July postmortem.

False confidence? Maybe. I’ll take it, though. I need as much confidence as I can get heading into the DELF language test I have on my 2021 goals program. (As the exam only takes place a few times a year, I need to sign up on the autumn roster if I want to make the deadline I set.)

On other fronts, I noticed this month when I reviewed my annual goals against my progress so far that I have—for the first time in my personal memory—managed to really feel good in my body in 2021. Not that I’d ever claim physical perfection (far from it), but that the work I’ve done this year has helped me to feel fitter and healthier mentally and physically and more at peace with my diet and exercise than I can remember feeling.

When I look back at my monthly reviews from the past (the private ones I do on paper, not the highlights I put in these monthly posts on Observing Leslie), I notice how much of a struggle I’ve had on these fronts in the past and feel incredibly free to have reached a good place in the first time since, perhaps, early childhood.

Here we go into autumn, everyone. Hang tight, spread as much love and positivity as you can (the world continues to need it), and stay kind to yourself while you’re at it, too.