That’s Enough for Today
That’s Enough for Today
My grandfather, Gene Chilcott, had a daily mantra:
“That’s enough for today.”
He would say it at the end of the workday, usually around 5 p.m.—and yes, often at the exact same time every day.
My grandfather had a career as an M&T Bank manager in Buffalo, New York. He also ran a successful newspaper distribution business in the 1950s and ’60s and raised three sons—one of whom was my dad—to get up at 3:30 a.m. to deliver newspapers around town. My dad and his brothers did that job diligently throughout high school and into college.
I suppose if I got up at 3:30 a.m. and worked for hours before beginning a full day at another job, I might learn to stop at 5 p.m., too.
I’m really a work in progress when it comes to closing the laptop at 5 p.m. I really do try to do this, especially since I am also an early riser. But with all the ways we communicate now, immediate replies can feel like a necessary part of the job. Everything feels instant and quick—just like our attention spans. It can be difficult to decide when the workday is truly done.
Of course, stopping was hard even before computers, hybrid schedules, and working from home. But by the time all of that came along, my grandfather had already built the habit of stopping. He knew how to say, “That’s enough for today,” and mean it.
He lived to be 96. He would have turned 101 this year.
I find myself wondering if that simple sentence had something to do with it—not as a secret to longevity, but as a daily reminder that work could end, the body could rest, and there was still a whole life to be lived beyond the day’s responsibilities.
Falling Back Into Fall
As I fall back into fall—with more work, more remote work than expected, and a full workolad—I am thinking carefully about how to work smarter, not harder, and how to define my boundaries more clearly than ever.
Every new season brings this kind of reflection for me.
Not an overhaul. Just a gentle asking:
What do I want to tweak this season? What could feel better? What needs my attention? What might I be ready to release?
For me, September is an audit—a deliberate pause to take a closer look at how I am living, working, and caring for myself.
I will still be showing up for my clients, my strength classes, and my nutrition coaching. I am falling back into my 4:30 a.m. wake-ups so I can walk and breathe outdoors, enjoy my coffee, and meditate—all away from a screen—before I step fully onto the screen at 6 a.m.
I know how I want to begin my days.
This season, my audit is really about how I close them.
It is about 5 p.m. That is where I want to make a change.
I want to hear my grandfather’s voice reminding me that the work will still be there tomorrow. That rest is part of the work. That being present for the people and life I love matters, too.
“That’s enough for today.”
Not an Overhaul—Just One Thing
Strength training, nutrition, boundaries, sleep, stress—none of them require a complete overhaul to move the needle.
We simply need to know where to begin.
Choose one thing. Practice it. Let it settle into your life. Then allow it to compound from there.
That is the heart of what we do together:
PREP your heart and mind for the day ahead.
BUILD health around the things you already do well.
STACK small, meaningful habits until they become part of how you live.
My grandfather understood this decades before “boundaries” was a word people regularly used at work. He did not need an elaborate system. He needed one sentence, repeated at the same time each day, that allowed him to close the door on work and open the door to the rest of his life.
A mantra can do that.
It can steady us in a difficult season, call us back when we drift, or remind us of the person we are becoming. It does not have to be clever or profound. It simply needs to be true for the season we are in.
Dig In With Me This Fall
As we move into fall together, I invite you to find a mantra of your own—one that helps you prepare your heart and mind each day.
Maybe you need a sentence that helps you begin:
I am strong enough to start.
Maybe you need one that brings you back to what matters:
Small things, done consistently.
Maybe you need permission to rest:
That’s enough for today.
What a beautiful thought: that decades from now, we might still be saying these words to ourselves—living into our 80s and 90s with strong, gentle old bones, healthy hearts, grounded minds, and habits that have carried us well.
Not because we overhauled everything at once.
Because we chose one meaningful thing, practiced it daily, and allowed it to become part of us.
So I will ask you:
What needs a little attention this season—not an overhaul, just a tweak?
And what mantra will help you live into it?
Sign up for Strength now to join my fall strength session starting Sept 9.
Prep. Build. Stack
🫶
-Jenny
