With the holidays coming quickly and work/life balance always in play, doesn’t it make sense to set intentions for the holiday and year-end experience you want? For many, these next few months contain some of the most valuable time you’ll have with loved ones and to set yourself up for a great start to 2023!

We can quickly get bogged down in busyness, stress and old patterns so here are 10 ways to turn this dynamic around and create the experience you want, personally and professionally.

1. Give yourself a break. Perfection, even perfect happiness, just isn’t possible. Let your best be good enough. Make a budget for both your time and your money over the holidays, especially time, and do your best to stick to it. Be kind to yourself.

2. Make conscious decisions. Get clear about what you really want for your holiday experience before compromising with others. If you don’t have a clear plan and clear intentions, you might find yourself getting swept along by others’ desires. Even if you compromise later, get clear first.

3. Shorten your list of activities. Sometimes less is more. Align your activities with your core values, then prioritize. If it adds stress, anxiety or might compromise your values, scratch it off. 

4. Say no when you want to. Often to please others, we try to fit everything into our schedules thinking we can maintain enough presence and peace to fulfill our best intentions for the holidays. It sounds simple, but too often obligation trumps desire. Sometimes saying no to one person allows you to say yes to another. 

5. Limit obligatory activities. Consider point #4 again. Ask yourself if the risk of saying no is really that substantial. If not, consider saying no and if you can’t avoid certain events, limit the time you’re there.  

6. Take good care of yourself. The old standards help keep frustration, tension and stress at bay: eat healthy between the “big” meals, find ways to give away the unhealthy leftovers, exercise even if it’s moderate, drink lots of water, and breathe deeply as an immediate stress reliever.

7. Start early, plan ahead. To avoid a last-minute frenzy that can destroy the best holiday spirit along with your budget, start shopping and taking care of holiday preparations early. Getting those preparations taken care of now means having more time to enjoy the holidays later. That means planning your business schedule accordingly and communicating with others in advance.

8. Ask for help. Reject any notion of martyrdom. The burden of preparations should not fall upon one person. The more specific you are in your request, the more successful you’ll be. Give others the opportunity to feel good about contributing and helping.

9. Establish new traditions. Have any of your traditions gotten stale, outdated, obsolete from family changes or ineffective at meeting your intentions? Don’t let the strict adherence to traditions rob your holiday spirit. Sometimes it’s time to let go of the past and start something new. Go back to your intentions and core values. Consider if it’s time to find some new traditions that better align with them. 

10. Get support. If the wonderful holiday season feels completely out of reach, you may experience the holiday blues. Many people do. Don’t beat yourself up for feeling that way. Reach out for support from a close family member, friend, spiritual leader, or professional counselor. There are plenty of people who really care so don’t lose faith. Just talking about it will likely bring immediate relief and a better state of mind.

The holiday season should be a time to reconnect and get re-energized for the new year around the corner. I know it can be difficult with all that’s going on in the world but remember, whatever we focus on expands. I’d like to help you focus on the right things if you’re willing to take one of several possible next steps.

Our “Confident Leader Insight Assessment” is a fun and easy step to see where your head is going into the holidays. You’ll also see where your thinking might get in the way of your best intentions. Check it out by clicking HERE. 

Once you complete it, if you’d like the full report, email me at todd@myroicoach.com.  Then, if you’d like a complimentary 30-minute clarity session with me to interpret your results or help set your intentions for a successful wrap-up of 2022 and a productive start to 2023, click the button below.