The Gutsy Woman Takes On December

December 1, 2018

“Bah, Humbug!” or “Man, that was FUN!” It’s up to you!

Every holiday season, I tell myself that this year I’m going to celebrate the holidays with simplicity. No more extravagant decorations that take a week to put up and another week in January to dismantle, pack and store for another 11 months.For the most part, I succeed – at the storage part, anyway. But lately I wonder if I’m being too much of a grinch. My adult kids are in their thirties, with families of their own, and traditions of their own.

One of the “next-gen” traditions they have is to get their Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving; they decorate it on that weekend, and they take it down the day after Christmas! The schedule itself is a ritual, and it works for them. I’ve had years when I stared at dead pine needles until there were buds on the trees in my yard. Embarrassing. So, it’s really all about where your mojo is in any given year. The main thing is to not let it disappear completely.

Whether this is a banner year – because you’re engaged to be married on January first, so everything this holiday season has a wedding bell attached to it – or it’s a year when something else adds a significant accent to the ordinary celebrations: you get to choose how much you want to put into this season. Never mind the commercial stuff: it’s always going to be over the top, and it starts earlier every year.

If you’re a solo-preneur, or a shop owner, you know the drill. But on the personal side of things – when you get home from the work day and close the door behind you, it’s time to breathe and detach from the hectic pace. It’s when you get to take a few moments to be with yourself, even if you have to steal yourself away from the spouse and kids for a bit.

Literally, breathing changes things. Inhaling the shift in pace, exhaling the tension of the traffic on the way home… it helps you make that shift from “have to” to “want to”. It lowers your blood pressure, allows you to relax, and makes it possible for you to actually take in the present moment, and make it your own. It’s about creating space: inner and outer. It’s about making a time and a place for what’s within, so that you’re not dragged kicking and screaming to every holiday event, commercial or otherwise.

Stay centered in what is important to YOU about the season, regardless of how you are expected to celebrate. When you rid yourself of others’ expectations of you, you create space for yourself: and in the end, that’s who makes the decisions about how much ho-ho-ho you have this month.

Your own Gutsy Woman is in charge. Listen to her, and make it a great season! January is right around the corner, and she’ll be there waiting to celebrate the New Year with you!

Stay tuned for The Gutsy Woman Coach programs in 2019: getting out of your own way, and moving from surviving to thriving!

Go Gutsy Now!