The holidays are nearly here. We are crossing over into of a time of relaxation and indulgence. A well earned rest.
A time when work should be left to the recesses of our minds and thoughts of a pandemic, put aside, if even for a few hours.
All of this is great but if you spend the next couple of weeks over indulging in food, alcohol and avoiding all exercise and work. It won’t get you off to a good start for 2021, and a good start for 2021 is something we all need.
I’m not suggesting you don’t party a little or fully relax after a difficult year but often we tell ourselves that this indulgence and complete lack of boundaries is something we deserve, a treat, a gift to ourselves after all our hard work. But when we overdo often we are not treating ourselves but abusing our bodies and as a result negatively impacting our mindset.
What you do in December will impact how you feel and how you feel about yourself in January.
In my experience when we have no boundaries, no self discipline, no grounding habits, it can result in an unpleasant start to the New Year.
For years I was depressed in January, overweight, exhausted and self critical for not having any self discipline, so speaking from experience I now know that it doesn’t have to be that way. With a few tweaks and conscious decisions you will much better about life and yourself come January 1st.
So here are a few suggestions to ensure that the festivities don’t go on too long or effect your ability to motivate yourself to get started next year.
Have a Grounding Habit
I have commit to myself to walk daily. In a 16 hour day surely I can find 30 minutes to walk, even if I only go out for 15 minutes I will count it as a win. So choose one habit that will keep you grounded. It could be meditation or yoga but keeping some form of movement going will help you not feel that dreadful sluggishness that comes after excessive indulgence.
Reduce Current Habits
Rather than drop all your good habits for the holidays (assuming you have some) why not keep them and reduce the time you spend on them. So if you currently meditate daily for 20 minutes continue to meditate but reduce the time commitment to 5 or 10 minutes. Alternatively if you have 3 or 4 daily positive habits, stick to one for the week or two of holidays.
Manage your Food and Drink Habits
Over indulgence in food is inevitable, but rather than starting on the chocolates today and continuing into the New Year. Minimise the damage by only indulging on Christmas day and the day after. The same goes for alcohol, if you have a drink every day from now until January I guarantee you you will feel crap in January. I did it for years so I know exactly how it feels!
Stay Connected
Even though these holidays will be much different than most, try and stay connected with family and friends. I know we are all zoomed out but staying in touch will help keep our mood elevated.
Start to De-Clutter
For some of you, Christmas will involve lots of gift giving and receiving, I think post-Christmas is the ideal time to do a de-clutter and donate any excess belongings. If you have a new version of something you already have donate the old one. Donate any unwanted gifts, don’t leave them lying around all year. I find de-cluttering a very cathartic processes, a ritualistic clearing space for the New Year to come
Planning the Year
Last but not least my favourite habit for a new year and that’s planning for the year to come. Take some time out to create a vision for the future, from the vision you can create goals for the year ahead. Now while the pandemic will limit what we can achieve there is still plenty of scope to achieve a lot of goals in 2021. My Workflow course kicking off on the 18th of January will show you how to create goals and achieve them through a 90 day plan process. It will also show you how you can create a more effective daily workflow to ensure you work daily towards achieving your goals.
And if you don’t do any of the things I have suggested, if you collapse on the sofa and don’t move until the 1st so be it. Do it without judgement or reproach.
Enjoy the rest and maybe you will join me on the 4th of January for the Move More Challenge in My Habit Mastery Academy, register your interest here
Start the year with the habit of exercise, yoga, walking, running, whatever way you want to move more is up to you. In January we will focus on moving more, in February Rising Early, each month there will be a new challenge. 12 New habits over 12 months, think how different your life could be. You can join the challenge each month or you can stick with the one or two habits over the year and get the support and accountability from a team of people working on the same habits as you making sure you don’t quit this time..Check it out here
Until next year I wish you all a peaceful and loving holiday season, rest well and be ready to reboot for 2021.
