December is a full month. For many businesses like ours, it’s our busy season. Plus there are parties & celebrations with school, work, family & friends. The hustle of the holidays can overwhelm me if I look at the calendar or my to-do list.
This means we are very intentional. We don’t partake in holiday experiences and traditions that leave us broke, overwhelmed, and exhausted. Before the holidays, and throughout the year, I talk about gifts with my children. It’s essential to set expectations ahead of time for a simpler holiday.
Considering the holidays often come with more to-dos, travel, family time, and disruption of our routines, I’m writing to share a few tools that may help you navigate this magical (and stressful) time of the year.
- Sit down today for 30 minutes (or more if you need it) and plan out everything you’ll need to do, accomplish, purchase, prep, cook, buy, bake, etc. for the Holidays. Download our free Holiday planning checklist to help. Okay, made the list? Awesome, now go back through and remove anything that isn’t absolutely essential to you or your family’s joy. As you plan your month of December can you allow yourself to slow down and savor? To pay a little more attention to what’s most important to you?
- Take action on one of your goals that you haven’t made as much progress on as you had hoped. Set aside an afternoon or day, eliminate all distractions and get to work. Sign up for a workout class at the gym or meet with a personal trainer and plan out your monthly meals & workouts in your fitness journal. Hole yourself up in a room for the day if you need to work on setting up your planner, year end business starts, or to start writing the blog you’ve always wanted to start. Small steps create momentum heading into the new year.
- Choose one work or house project to finish. You’re not going to complete everything before the end of the year. And you aren’t going to remodel your kitchen in the next 30 days (unless you are Chip & Joanna). But look at your project list, and pick one thing you can reasonably complete and check off the list. Hanging some new coat racks in the entryway? Doable. Cleaning out your closet? You’ve got this.
- Do one small thing to prepare for the new year. Set up your planner. Start working on your vision board. Begin writing out events, birthdays and appointments and consider finding an accountability partner going into the new year. Now is a good time to connect with your coach, or your accountability group, and share your year-in-review.
Wishing you & yours a happy & healthy holiday season!
