How to do December

It’s December 4th and there’s a good chance you have one or two or five holiday parties already scheduled. You probably have a million to-do lists in your mind and you may even know what your weekends will be filled with all the way up until the New Year.

So, I raise the question, how do you do December?

How do you handle the holidays?

Do you ever really enjoy the holidays with your crazy schedules? What about the whole ‘downtime’ and “just be with family” thing, is it even enjoyable anymore? Somehow this time of year turns into “chaos all around me” and “I’m just pretending to have it all together.” When really you’re thinking, “I had zero downtime and I’m actually more tired than I’ve been all year.”

Yes, the busyness of December can be really hard to balance. In my experience, the reasons, the events and the ‘have-tos’ are there for us to place blame for all the craziness we allow ourselves to get swept up into!

What about your choices?

What about your actions? What about where you place priority over the holidays?

Have you ever thought that your mindset around the holidays plays into how it actually plays out? Well, it does. How do I know this? Well, I’ve been there for years. I have found that it’s in that denial of our mindsets that we get the most caught up in the hustle and bustle of life.

What do you want to do?

Who do you really want to spend time with? What would you like it to feel like around those people? Where do you want to go? Where do you not want to go?

Nobody told you the party was mandatory or that you should over spend on gifts. Nobody told you to host a weekly extravagant dinner party. Nobody told you that you must go Boxing Day shopping and nobody told you that you had to eat and drink everything at your work party. These are all choices.

Choices come from our thought and behavior patterns from the past. If you take a long hard look in the mirror about this, you’ll recognize your holiday traditions as "that’s just the way we’ve always done it.”

I have traditions with my family too. They are really special and I hold them close to my heart. But, this year we’re doing it differently, by choice.

We are keeping it simple and we actually mean it this time. We’re committing to our choice and sponsoring a family who wouldn’t have the opportunity to enjoy the holidays otherwise. We always said we were going to simplify it and as my brother and I got older we didn’t seem to accomplish this.

We all just want to be together, we want to visit and we want to real downtime. So, this year, we are.

Look at what you have planned this month and see what you truly want in your heart for you and the people you love. This time of year can be a time of reflection and when we choose to reflect and get clear, we then have the power to create what we want for our life, not just in December.