If you know me well, you know I love choosing a word for the year. And I’ve gotten many members of the See Jane Write community in the practice of doing the same. One of my coaching clients has already picked her word for 2021. She chose UNDAUNTED.

That’s such a fantastic word. It’s both beautiful and powerful. Even though I chose my word for 2021 months ago (I’ll share it with you next month), I’ve been thinking a lot about how to embody and embrace the idea of being undaunted, too.

Sometimes I stand in the mirror and look at myself and say – out loud – “Girl, you need to do better!”

There are so many things about my writerpreneur life that I need to whip into shape.

When you’re a multi-passionate writer, goal-setting is imperative. Otherwise, you’ll end up saying yes to everything and, most likely, accomplishing nothing.

Because I was a teacher for 10 years, August always feels like January — a start of a new year, a chance for new beginnings.

Even with all that’s going on in the world and in my life, I am excited about August just as I have been in years before.

I want this August to be a month about leveling up, both professionally and personally, and I’ve set some goals and made some plans to help me do just that.

For me, this month is all about hitting the reset button. I reset my 2020 goals. I revamped the See Jane Write website. And I’m doing the work to reset my relationship with God.

I’ve also been resetting my 40 Before 40 list.

Back in February when I turned 39 I shared a list of 40 things I want to do before my 40th birthday.

Then COVID-19 ended the world as we knew it.

Shortly after that I learned I would need to undergo chemotherapy. (In case you’re new around here, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January, but initially told I would only need surgery and radiation for treatment.)

COVID, cancer, and chemo obviously mean that many of my 40 Before 40 plans — like traveling and hosting in-person events — simply can’t happen. And for a while, I was going to just ditch the whole project. But that felt too much like giving up and that’s something I refuse to do.

So here’s my updated 40 Before 40 List.