The holidays are on top of us, the Christmas crazies are here! Whether you celebrate Hanukah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa, this can be a stressful time of year. The key is to remember the reason for the season, GIVING and put yourself at the top of your list. So here are just 5 quick and easy ways to make the most of the season.
#1 Take a success retreat day. During all the hustle and bustle, tying up of loose ends in business, and dreaming of the year of promises ahead, take a day or even just a long lunch out at your favorite place and bring along a notebook or pad of paper (not a laptop) and brainstorm ideas for the New Year. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy this is when you take yourself away from distractions and simply allow your mind to move forward. (I did this the other evening at dinner by myself at my favorite Atlanta Italian spot, Di Paolo Cucina, and came away with 6 full pages of notes, ideas, follow ups and more.)
#2 Explore your library of shelf help, invest in you. This is perhaps the most important step of all. I’m betting if you are anything like me that you have pdf documents stored unread in your computer system, programs perhaps not even unwrapped sitting on your shelf. You had the best of intentions but business got in the way. This is your time to pull them out, boot them up and invest in yourself and your success with new tools, techniques, strategies and more. Get a fresh perspective and some new ideas to take action on.
#3 Just say thank you. Craft 5 hand written thank you notes each day for 5 days at the holidays. It can be before, during or after, and regardless of what tradition you celebrate. Hand written notes are so rare these days and mean so much. My favorite holiday isn’t the one with most presents but the one with the most cards and remembrances from friends, family, and clients.
#4 Enjoy an extra or new workout. Now this might sound unfun to you, but with all the eating that we do at this time of year, not to mention the sugary treats we bake up, extra holiday cheer we imbibe, and fat laden too-good-to-miss appetizers you’ll feel much better when you keep your exercise routine on track. In fact, it is a great time to try out a new class or maybe explore a new Wii routine. Beat the pudge before it happens!
#5 Indulge yourself at the spa (this works for you guys too!) With all the running around, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and preparations that go into celebrating the holiday, be sure to add an afternoon in at your favorite day spa. And if you can’t spare that, then take off at least an hour or so for a manicure and pedicure or a massage. You’ll feel the difference.
Bonus Idea! Be sure that you take a minute to assess those subscriptions you have both online and offline. Keep the ones that you are truly benefiting from and deriving value from and dump the rest. When you don’t have time to get to it, it goes. This will lighten up your inbox and your mailbox quickly and easily. (I have a backlog of three months of magazines on average, time to ditch many!) And remember you can save money and space by moving some of your offline subscriptions to online.
How do you treat yourself during the holidays? Love to read your ideas in the comments!
