The Choice is Yours: September Challenge

Welcome to September.

For the past two months, we’ve been practicing something together.

Nothing complicated.

Nothing requiring hours of our day.

Just small moments of awareness.

In July, we practiced noticing.

We paid attention to the thoughts, emotions, habits, fears, experiences, and outside influences quietly shaping our decisions.

Then August gave us another challenge.

Pause.

Create a little space between what happens and what we do next.

One breath.

One moment.

One opportunity to interrupt the automatic reaction.

Now September brings us to the next step.

Choice.

The Choice After the Pause

Think about what we’ve been building.

Something happens.

You notice your reaction.

You pause.

And then… what?

Eventually, we have to choose.

We respond.

We walk away.

We speak.

We remain silent.

We spend the money.

We save it.

We say yes.

We say no.

We begin.

We wait.

The pause was never meant to keep us standing still.

It was meant to give us enough space to ask:

“What do I actually want to do next?”

That’s our September challenge.

This Month’s Challenge

For the month of September, I invite you to make one intentional choice every day.

That’s it.

It doesn’t have to change your life.

It doesn’t have to frighten you.

It doesn’t even have to be different from what you normally would have done.

Just choose something intentionally.

Maybe you choose to put your phone down during a conversation.

Maybe you choose water instead of another soda.

Maybe you choose to save five dollars instead of spending it.

Maybe you choose to take a walk.

Maybe you choose to make the phone call you’ve been avoiding.

Maybe you choose to say no.

Maybe you choose to say yes.

Maybe you choose to rest without feeling guilty about it.

Maybe someone frustrates you and you choose your response instead of giving the first emotion that arrives complete control.

The decision itself isn’t the important part of this experiment.

Choosing it is.

You Don’t Have to Choose Differently

This is something I think we sometimes misunderstand about intentional living.

We assume becoming more aware means we should always make a different decision.

It doesn’t.

Imagine you’re about to buy something.

You pause.

You recognize the desire influencing you.

You consider whether the purchase makes sense.

And then you buy it anyway.

Did the pause fail?

No.

You looked at the influence.

You considered the consequences.

And you decided:

“Yes. I still want this.”

That’s choice.

Sometimes awareness changes our direction.

Sometimes it confirms it.

The goal isn’t to constantly fight our instincts, emotions, habits, or desires.

The goal is to recognize that they don’t automatically get the final vote.

Who Gets Authority?

This is where the experiment becomes interesting.

Throughout the day, countless influences compete for our attention.

Fear says:

“Don’t risk it.”

Pride says:

“Prove them wrong.”

Comfort says:

“Do it tomorrow.”

Anger says:

“Say it now.”

Habit says:

“This is what we always do.”

Other people have opinions.

Advertising makes suggestions.

Algorithms place things in front of us.

Our past reminds us what happened last time.

None of those influences necessarily need to disappear.

Some may even be useful.

But before acting, September gives us an opportunity to ask:

“Which influence do I want to give authority to right now?”

That question changes the relationship.

Instead of simply being influenced…

we begin choosing which influences we follow.

Start Small

When we hear the word choice, our minds often jump toward the big decisions.

Career.

Relationships.

Money.

Where to live.

What direction our lives should take.

Those choices matter.

But most of our lives aren’t lived at giant crossroads.

They’re lived on ordinary Tuesdays.

What time we get out of bed.

What we eat.

What we watch.

What we say.

What we ignore.

Whether we complain.

Whether we listen.

Whether we spend another ten minutes scrolling.

Whether we take one small step toward something we say we want.

Individually, these choices can seem insignificant.

But repeated choices have a strange way of becoming patterns.

And patterns have a strange way of becoming lives.

So don’t spend September searching for dramatic decisions.

Look for the small ones.

They’re everywhere.

A Simple September Practice

At some point each day, notice one decision before you make it.

Pause.

Then ask yourself three questions:

What is influencing me right now?

What will this choice create?

What do I choose?

Then choose.

No guilt.

No requirement to make the “perfect” decision.

No judging yourself afterward.

We’re practicing.

That’s all.

And at the end of the day, if you want to take the experiment a little further, ask:

• What did I intentionally choose today?
• What influenced that decision?
• Did my choice create what I expected?
• Would I make the same choice again?

Curiosity.

Not judgment.

You’re Already Choosing

There’s something else worth remembering.

We don’t begin making choices because September arrived.

We’ve been choosing all along.

The difference is that many decisions happen so quickly and so routinely that they don’t feel like choices anymore.

September isn’t about adding hundreds of new decisions to your life.

It’s about becoming present for a few of the decisions you’re already making.

Because the more often we recognize the moment of choice…

the easier it becomes to recognize it again.

Awareness → Pause → Choice

Three months.

Three small practices.

July:

Notice.

August:

Pause.

September:

Choose.

Put them together and something interesting begins to happen.

You notice what is influencing you.

You create space before automatically responding.

Then you decide which influence receives authority.

Awareness → Pause → Choice.

None of these practices guarantees the perfect decision.

That isn’t the goal.

They give us something much more useful.

The opportunity to participate intentionally in the direction of our own lives.

One Choice Today

So don’t worry about the entire month yet.

Don’t try to make every decision intentionally.

Don’t analyze everything.

Just find one choice today.

Notice the moment.

Pause.

Ask what is influencing you.

Consider what your decision might create.

Then say:

“This is what I choose.”

Tomorrow…

do it again.

Thirty days.

Thirty intentional choices.

Maybe some will be forgotten five minutes later.

Maybe one will change something important.

We don’t know yet.

That’s why it’s an experiment.

Welcome to the September Awareness Challenge.

The Choice Is Yours.

One moment.

One pause.

One choice.

One day at a time.

Until next time,

— Magus G.Mack

A Message from Magus G.Mack