The Importance of Re-evaluating Your Season & Holiday Planning
Do you ever feel like things are going along smoothly and really clicking and then suddenly everything is harder or out of sync? We tend to think of seasons as large chunks of our lives. College, single, young married, young kids, starting a new business, etc…
But there are more types of seasons than we may realize.
Some of them can be quite short as a mother with young kids can tell you! Just when you get them into a good routine, they grow and develop a little more and suddenly, the old rhythm isn’t working now.
That’s why I’ve discovered that re-evaluating periodically is a super valuable practice.
I try to do it at the very least, every quarter but I also try to keep in tune with our rhythms and if something starts to feel off or like it’s not working anymore, I will stop and reassess.
It helps me notice things that I may not realize otherwise so I can course correct or come up with a different approach to get back into more of a sweet spot.
For example, we just finished summer and are now solidly into fall. As we hit September, I was realizing that I just REALLY did not want to go to they gym and swim anymore. It was a huge effort for me whereas just a week before, I was excited to go and it was bringing me life.
I had to stop and assess, and what I realized was that I ONLY like swimming during the summer when I can do it in an outdoor pool. And once fall hits, I just want to spend more time at home and re-establish the rhythms and routines but taking a 2 hour chunk out of my morning or afternoon to drive to the gym, swim, shower, and drive back was getting in the way of that.
There were other things that were changing, some of them larger vision and purpose changes, and others more child related, but the act of stopping and taking stock and deciding what I needed to tweak, made a big difference.
It’s also something that I find necessary to do before the holidays hit, because the season I am in makes a big difference in my holiday game plan.
Knowing it beforehand helps me to make decisions on holiday activities and all the other things that go along with it that won’t leave me overwhelmed and wanting to hide in a closet and shove my face with ALL the Christmas cookies.
That’s why I created the 7 Steps to Embracing Your Season worksheet and printables as a tool to help walk you through the evaluation process.
You can snag it at the bottom of this post, print it out and take a few minutes to see where you are at and what’s important to you.
It is SO important to think through your limitations and the realities of your season before rushing into the holidays.
Ask me how I know! I just finished filling mine out again before I make my holiday plan.
And in case you don’t follow Kendra at the Lazy Genius Collective, (which you totally need to do because she’s awesome!) I’m linking to her blog/podcast because she did a whole Holiday Series that is going to help you with ALL THE STUFF and being pro-active to prioritize, create margin, and have a good mindset so you can enjoy your holidays without turning into the Grinch.
Some of the things that we are prioritizing for our family this year are going to the pumpkin patch farm down the road with the extended family, baking our traditional Christmas cookies, going to the Christmas Boutique thingy right around the corner from our house, making hot chocolate for the kids, and observing Advent (though I'm still working on what that actually looks like for us).
I’m super enjoying her series so far and it’s the perfect way to walk through of the process to yourself set up for the holidays after you go through the Embracing Your Season worksheet.
So here's your holiday game plan:
1. Sign up below to get your copy of the Embracing Your Season worksheet.
2. Get yourself a cup of tea or hot chocolate and find somewhere cozy to fill it out to see what your starting place is for the holidays.
3. Click on the link to Kendra's blog, read her holiday posts and listen to her holiday podcasts and snag the printables for them to help you game plan your holidays.
4. Breathe a sigh of relief. 😂
Now go forth and conquer the Holiday Crazies.
You’re welcome. 😉