With multiple family gatherings, pressure to find meaningful gifts, and the push to wrap up the corporate year successfully, we all have the potential to feel more stress in the last four weeks of the year than we think we can handle! Firstbeat, a Scandinavian company that focuses on heart rate variability data to improve sports performance, shows in their data that stress levels in December are higher than at any other time of the year.
So, if we know what we’re heading into, let’s be proactive in keeping our stress levels under the boiling point by using some simple strategies.
You Can Say No
If you’re a people-pleaser, the temptation to say yes to any ask is pretty high. The problem with the end of the year is there are a lot more people asking for your time, expertise, ear… the list goes on! Saying yes to everything doesn’t make you an awesome person—it makes you a stretched-thin person, which can mean you’re not giving 100% to anyone.
If you listen to the Julia Louis-Dreyfus podcast “Wiser Than Me,” you’ll hear a repeating sentiment: “No is a complete sentence.” Many of us feel like we need to explain why we can’t do something. Yes, it feels like the nice thing to do, but we, women especially, don’t need to voice our reasonable excuses. A simple, “No, I can’t,” is sufficient. Of course, when your boss is the one asking, perhaps a little explanation is good, so you still have a job to come back to in January!
Limit Your Expectations
Nothing can disappoint someone like failed expectations. The good news here is we own our expectations and can adjust them accordingly. Perhaps you think you’ve found THE BEST GIFT for so-and-so, but when they open it, their enthusiasm fails to convey that you did a great job. Maybe your thoughts of serving the perfect meal are crushed when your dinner guests arrive an hour late. A blog on Tiny Buddha sums it up well: When expectations rule our lives, we set ourselves up for disappointment, and then we judge ourselves harshly as a result.
Adjust how you envision end-of-the-year situations. Dissect ahead of time the areas you can control, and come up with alternate plans for when the parts you can’t control go out of whack. Someone doesn’t like their gift as much as you thought they would? Be happy with yourself for the effort made. Company is late for dinner? Give yourself some leeway on timing in the kitchen, or accept that the microwave might come into play. The most important thing is spending time with people you care about. That’s where the memories are made, not what sits on your dinner plate.
Take Time for You
Taking time for yourself can mean exercising, enjoying a massage, solving Wordle, playing with your pet, slipping in a 30-minute catnap or relaxing in a bath. You don’t need to carve out hours of dedicated time every day, but making sure you have 5 to15 minute intervals of “me time” is important during stressful periods.
The trick here is not to add stress to your life figuring out what your “me time” looks like. It could be a few minutes of yoga or an hour reading a book. If you’re flexible, you can grab some recharging time on the fly even if it’s just concentrating on your breathing for five minutes in your car between errands.
Make Conscious Dietary Choices
Oh my goodness, the end of the year parade of parties and social obligations can be daunting! Add to it the copious amounts of rich or sugary food readily available and the social norm of consuming alcohol to celebrate, and any kind of nutritious habits you dedicated yourself to earlier in the year start to buckle.
Along with sleep and exercise, nutrition is a key indicator of good health. Heart.org lays out some useful tips to help you make healthy choices when it comes to food and beverages over the holidays.
- Eat fruit and veggies before a party so you don’t arrive famished
- Keep a bottle of water nearby so when you want to sip something it’s an easy choice
- Enjoy the things you love, just in moderation
Fueling your body with the good stuff will help your immunity, sleep and waistline!
Prioritize
What REALLY needs to get done? For the corporate setting, Parabol, itemized 45 questions to ask yourself that deal with risk assessment, practicality and value among other things. Outside of a work setting there are questions you can ask yourself to help decide which tasks MUST get done and which ones can wait.
1. What’s the worst-case scenario if I don’t do this task ASAP?
2. Can someone else get this done so I can take it off my plate?
3. Does this task align with my current life goals?
4. What will have the greater impact on my well-being, getting it done now, or letting it go for a while?
While it’s easy to mark every to-do as urgent this time of year, likely, most are not. Your house does not need to be “real estate showing” ready to host guests, and every package does not need to be wrapped in matching paper. If you can recognize some of the pressures you put on yourself, you’ll be one step closer to giving yourself a break.
Our team at Motivation Excellence is ready to help relieve your stress when it comes to connecting with the people who mean the most to your business. Our B2B loyalty programs, group travel, incentives, and meetings & events are a great way to Inspire Extraordinary Performance any time of year. Explore all of our solutions on our website!
