Have a beautiful and blessed day!
By MaryAnne Calder, IWCC, Life Coach
Are you ready for Christmas? How many times have you heard that question since the beginning of November? Would you say too many times to count? What are we really asking? Are we asking to compare ourselves to the others? Are we competing, hoping that we are further along than they are? When I am asked, I have this sense of guilt that I am not ready, even though Christmas day may be weeks away. My Mom, use to say when Christmas Day arrived whether ready or not, it really did not matter. Christmas came anyway.
The first time someone asked me (the ready question) this year; I stopped to consider. What did it mean to me to be ready for Christmas? Did it mean having bought every gift for everybody on my list, the gifts wrapped and under the tree? Did it mean that the house be decorated to perfection for weeks prior to Christmas Day? All the cards ready for the mail on Dec 1. All the baking done, the parties/gatherings schedule on the calendar.
I have learned from experience that preparedness for Christmas, means different things to different people. What is important to one person is not so important to the other. Some even dread the thoughts of what getting ready for Christmas involves. Whether you are that person who needs to have order in your preparation or you are the person that leaves the preparation to the last minute or you choose to not prepare at all, we all are In some way affected by the (get ready for Christmas.)
I like my preparedness to included hope, peace, joy, and love. Making a choice when I wake in the morning to have hope for a beautiful and blessed day, choosing to look for peace in the challenges I may face, embracing the joy of laughter and to love all who cross my path on that day. That is readiness for Christmas. A gift we can give to ourselves is in choosing to begin our day planning for a great ending to our day. It is still important for me to have gift giving, baking, decorating, greetings and the parties/gatherings be a part of Christmas preparedness. However, when trying to achieve all of those things, stresses me, it takes away from the meaning.
My preparedness for Christmas this year involved choosing to have an attitude of keeping it simply spiritual (kiss). My choice, to spend time reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas, that of the gift born in a humble stable in Bethlehem, is to remember the importance of that gift to my life. What would you choose as a focus for your life this Christmas? Will it involve the gift of restoring a broken relationship? Will you choose to have hope, peace, joy, and love a part of your Christmas readiness? Whatever it is that you choose, remember to treat yourself as a Valuable Person.
Preparedness for the onslaught of to do lists requires careful planning. Understanding the difference between what is important/urgent and not important/non-urgent is time management. Look at the list of tasks, like your baking, decorating and parties/gatherings that need attending. Prioritize them in the time matrix of important/urgent; non-urgent/non-important the results of doing that preparedness may give you the gift of time that is in short supply at this time of year. It is important to plan, however, it is vital to be prepared. Be prepared to CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS! Have a beautiful and blessed day!
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