The holiday season is here! Are you feeling the anticipation of more than you imagined happening at once? Work and school schedules are changing, opportunities are part of the overwhelm. What to say “yes” to, what to say “no” to… Leaders can easily become disenchanted with the life they’ve built if a seasonal change doesn’t include a systems checkup before the season. Already in overwhelm? Stop right where you are and b.r.e.a.t.h.e. Go on, do it again. b.r.e.a.t.h.e. You know why I look or type at the letters with periods? Leaders know that our breathing is a fuel for stopping overwhelm. So often we hold our breathe and breathe faster when we’re stressed. Our faster breathing is our bodies trying to do a more efficient job when our body is stressed. THAT is the clue. Why not help your body out by taking 5 to 7 seconds to take in more oxygen and exhale just as long. Do it three times and your body and brain is in a much more fueled situation to receive the information you are feeding it.
What are you feeding your mind? What is your vision? What are your words? What are you doing to make sure that the vision you are doing this work for stays foremost in your mind?
Leaders work daily to keep their vision of the life they are choosing to create in the forefront of their mind. Guess who is in the picture? YOU! The more
you can define what your best life looks like, the more you can visualize your success the way you see it, the more ability you have to enact the education, experience and outcome of that vision. Did you hear me? Our success is determined by what WE can see before you know how to do anything! Look around you. It’s early December but you’ve been seeing winter scenes, Christmas trees and holiday expectations coming into the advertising and stores. Is it adding to your desire to “get to that”? Why not surround yourself with messages and pictures that affirm what YOU want in your leadership? A simple pin or reminder visually can help you touch it during the day if you’re tactile, see it during the day if you’re visual and all of us benefit from hearing, seeing, telling, and touching the visions we are working towards.
Overwhelmedness in your life simply means you are focusing on too many places at once. Leaders can handle one thing at a time and we’re limited as to what we can handle. So the task is first and foremost to identify what the vision is, break it down into smaller benchmarks and goals, then delegate what you can to those who have a stake in the vision. Your future leaders need experience, your employees need their income opportunity, your family needs your presence. The very things your customers need such as finishing all gift buying for Christmas and Hanukkah are the same things that your business can provide for others to add comfort and ease to their life through your products or services….which adds comfort to your own life with profits and presence.
This is the day you have. Are you choosing to be a part of this moment? Overwhelmed-ness happens when you focus too many things at once. Look too far ahead or continue to refocus that which has past. Stop. Breathe. Look around you. THIS moment is where you are, and do what you can do in today’s time. Take time to celebrate what is right in your life, what you can accomplish this day, and each day choose again what matters in that day. Breathe. Focus. Release and go forward through productive actions, then celebrate each accomplishment (even if its getting out of bed and getting on with the day!) and you’ll find the best holiday yet.
