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What Works: Dealing with Holiday Stress

‘Tis the week before Christmas / And all through the brain / The madness is roaring / Like a freight train.

I wrote this little spin on the Night Before Christmas to acknowledge you. A sparkling tree and stockings hung with care don’t come without someone putting up the tree and stuffing the stockings.

There’s a week of business to be done. There’s food to be made, parties to attend, family to see, and a slew of activities. All of this can create some Holiday stress. So how do you manage it all? I talk about this concept in today’s Motivation Monday video that you can see below or by going to the youtube video here.

Know what you can control.
I will use myself as the example here. I am a terrible gift wrapper. Gift bags are my go-to. Yet, I’ve always had the desire to gift beautifully wrapped gifts. It’s not that I don’t care. I just don’t have that skill. Now, in previous years, I would shake it off, joke about it, and laugh at myself. But all of that was just denial of my desire to give something pretty. I’ve always wanted to give beautiful gifts. My laughable comments about doing “lazy Christmas” covered up my own desire.

You can imagine my relief when I saw the Rainbow Girls doing gift wrapping for charity at the Carson Mall. See, I can’t really control how good I am with paper, scissors, tape, and ribbon. Sure, I could take some classes (if they existed). But do I really have the time? I was going to try to wrap my presents this year. But any year I’ve tried that, I’ve frustrated myself. In the process of giving to someone else, I was stressing myself out.

What I can control are my resources.
I feel amazing letting the Rainbow Girls wrap my presents. I get to donate to charity and give beautiful gifts. I can do other things, like run my business on a Monday, while they wrap the gifts.

In effect, I have elves!
You do too. I want to challenge you today by saying you don’t have to do it all. I want you to take your to-do list and get a pen. Write C if it’s a task you can control or I if it’s a task you can influence. If you can’t write a C or an I by it, it’s someone else’s task. Next to each task, draw a line and write down the resources you can pull to help you with the task.

Yesterday, I went to an ornament exchange party. I stopped by the Carson Mall and bought the ornament at Ogres-Holm Pottery. I did that after I put glaze on a project I had done. Then, I went to Paul Schatt’s and got some pullaway bread. I didn’t have to make an ornament to have it be hand crafted. I didn’t have to spend hours baking to have a delicious offering for the potluck. And just in case you think that was expensive. The ornament was $10 and the cake (which was able to feed everyone) was $8. Elves don’t have to be expensive, but they do save time!

What is within your control this Holiday? What can you pull in resources to accomplish? The discussion is open in the comments below.

What Works Coaching

Diane Dye Hansen is the Chief Inspiration Officer of What Works Coaching, an individual and organizational coaching and consulting firm based in Carson City. She has 20 years of experience working with top corporations, growing businesses, motivated entrepreneurs, and individuals hungry for a fresh start. Diane holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and Marketing from Cal State San Bernardino. She is also a candidate for a Master’s degree in Communications Management from the University of Southern California. Her column appears every Monday, and sometimes Tuesday, in Carson Now.

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