The Holidays: Take ACTION, Gain Balance

by Bunky Lundberg

   During the holidays, we look for harmony, happiness, and health. What we have, very often, is hectic, hurried, and harried. Make a change for the holidays this year. Avoid the hectic, harried, and hurried by committing to ACTION and acknowledging that change can be difficult. Doing this will bring harmony, happiness, and health! A Anticipate. We can anticipate fun, excitement, good food and gifts. We can anticipate the never-ending number of responsibilities related to getting ready. OR, we can anticipate and have it all. We can decide what we want and don't want by setting realistic goals that lead us through the holidays in a new way. C Create. We can create overwhelm or we can create happiness. What happens if we create new traditions this year based on simplicity? Gifts can be edible, homemade, or purchased. There could be fewer for a change. We can get together with friends for baking or wrapping or planning. We can cut back on what we think we have to do. We can create it! T Time. Ah, this is the big one. The problem is never having enough, no matter how well planned. The solution: set a time frame this year that is different and stick to it. Start earlier, create the plan and be content with what you accomplish. I Invent. Invent your own holiday season. Make choices that you want to make. Be happy to attend the functions you must and invent something new that you have always wanted to do. Doing what is expected often leaves no time for our own ideas. O Organize. Organization is the key to the entire process! It involves anticipating, creating, planning, and inventing. If we make the lists, plan missions and errands, so that we accomplish many tasks on each planned outing, mark them off as completed, and refrain from adding to our original lists, we can do it the way we want for a change. N Negotiate. Ask for help in every way that you can! Ask for gift ideas, give gift ideas. Ask everyone to bring something for dinners. House guests can be put to work, too. Don't forget to negotiate assistance from the children. They can be involved in new ways this season, too. What a sense of accomplishment! What a sense of harmony, happiness, and health! Does it take more time this way? It might feel as if it does during the planning stage. It always takes longer to get organized than we expect it will. But, in the big picture, accomplishing everything that you choose takes less time because it has been so well planned. Take ACTION. Anticipate, create, take time, invent , organize, and negotiate. © 1998, Bunky Lundberg. All rights reserved.