Month-in-Review Highlights: October 2025
The stunning autumn foliage in Parc de Milan changed color continually throughout the month. Lausanne, Switzerland. October 15, 2025.
I postmortem each month shortly after it ends. Previously, I used these posts to hold myself accountable on progress toward my annual goals. Starting in January 2023, I broadened these posts to address more generally my observations and experiences for the month. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)
Until a couple of years ago, the shortening of days that became impossible to ignore in mid-September would throw me into melancholy. I enjoy the long summer days, the sunshine from early until later than seems possible, the way it calls me to get outside and explore.
I reframed my thinking a couple of years back after realizing that human routine should change with the seasons. (Well, as far as work and responsibilities allow.) I can’t think of any other animal that kicks itself for not maintaining the same rhythm of life every month of every year.
With this reframing, I began to appreciate the autumnal slow down, the preparation for the full-on hibernation season (or as close to it as humans get) of winter. I even started to look forward to the change of seasons this year when I realized that the turn inward gives me more time, quiet, and focus for my fiction writing. Exploring out in the world fills the well, but the words don’t end up on the page until I’m seated somewhere. (Funny how that works.)
My September return to the page continued in October at a really satisfying clip. I gave myself an amount of time I intended to spend with the manuscript each day and, each day, I met my quota.
As you’d expect, this meant I made significant progress. I might even achieve the goal I set for the year: Completing a first narrative outline of the novel. It’ll be a stretch, but it’s possible. That feels good.
The fiction work is the fun work, so I started this September month-in-review there, but I had other personal and professional goals for the year that needed tending in September as well. I trimmed my list of annual objectives way down for 2025 compared to what I set for myself in previous years, as I’ve tended to stress myself with “nice to haves” that, upon reflection, weren’t things I really wanted to accomplish or change but thought I should. Thanks to the reality check, I’m tracking pretty well across my 2025 objectives, even if I need to stay focused get several administrative tasks accomplished on the professional side.
The last quarter of the year always feels like such a headlong rush, doesn’t it?
On the personal-goal front, I set an objective to create a monthly activity with friends and haven’t done it. I struggle with knowing what to do and when and where and how, especially given that I want it to be low-key and casual and not one more project on my monthly agenda that only serves to overwhelm me and everyone else involved. Will I get it done before the year’s through? We shall see.