December! How delightful!
My favourite parts of December are always the beginning and the end. I love the excitement and anticipation of the early days and I love the end of month/end of year nostalgia. Of course, Christmas is fantastic, too, but there is a quite time for a week or so in there and it drags on a little too long for my liking. It’s also the very busiest and most complex time of year in my day job which is something I both really love and thrive on and really hate and suffer through. That definitely adds to the drama.
This month, we have some really great stuff on the docket. Like, I mean, REALLY GREAT. Things like a charity 5k (donations graciously accepted), a concert featuring my hands down favourite hip hop artist, hockey games, Cirque du Soleil, two holiday parties and visits from friends and family. We have a full calendar, but in the midst of all that, I’d like to add a few fun to dos to our plan.
- Go ice skating
- Go snowshoeing
- Drive around looking at Christmas lights
- Run 40 km
- Read three books
- Get a haircut
- Make the rounds to spread good cheer
- Invite friends in
- Great a vision board, pick a word, set intentions for 2017
- Plan travel to Long Beach, Ontario, Las Vegas & Prague (?)
- Have a merry Christmas
As a bonus for this month’s regular list, I’m adding a specific intention for practice in December. That intention: DO IT NOW.
For me, the holidays start out as a joyful time. I start early by putting up lights and pulling out decorations. People hiss and boo and roll their eyes at me, but it makes me really happy to get an early start.
So, I get an early start and then my enthusiasm lulls. I compose mental lists of things to do and put them off until another time. It doesn’t help that I’m naturally a pleasure delayer so I postpone things I know I’m going to get enjoyment out of until another time. I almost enjoy the anticipation more than I enjoy the action. So I wait it out, but I often wait so long that I end up late, in a rush and sapping all the fun out of something that I’m supposed to enjoy. Put simply, I lose track of time.
DO IT NOW means taking the opportunity to write cards or wrap gifts or go shopping or visit a friend when I can and without preserving the opportunity for another time or putting it off for the perfect moment.
What are your big plans for this December? What bad habits could you change to help make your holidays happier?
