Is it just me, or did you also notice that the holiday decorations and advertising started earlier this year?
My first reaction was like one of those cartoon characters who gets surprised and his eyes bug out about three feet.
My first thought was to chase thoughts about everything I have yet to do this year.
My first feeling was overwhelm.
How about you?
Yes, it’s “the most wonderful time of the year”…and yet all of us are susceptible of missing the wonder of it all due to work overwhelm that accompanies the holidays.
Check out these 3 Tips to Cure Your Holiday Overwhelm at work that help me:
Focus on Positive Strengths
From Madison Avenue to Your Street, we are shoved toward an impending sense of lack during the holidays. This scarcity mentality afflicts us at work as well, shifting our focus to the negative.
I choose to focus on positive strengths. I make a list of what’s going well with my businesses right now. I jot some notes about the strengths of 2014 and include financials, significant product developments, additional team members, customer problems solved, and new referral relationships.
You can do the same in less than an hour. Then begin your work day by reading over this list. This single strategy pivots your mindset from negative—what I don’t have—to positive—what we’re doing well. Since you see what you’re looking for, you will add to your list daily as you discover more positive strengths.
Focus on Positive Situations
Next, I focus on positive situations. Overwhelm produces anxiety which shuts down our strategic ability to focus on positive situations. We see Mt. Everest in its entirety instead of the first step that leads to the second step which gets you to the summit. Rather than focusing on what you can do, we shut down because we can’t do it all at once.
I’m all about doing what I can do today and working off a list of those action items. You can make a list of what you can do. Think of them as positive situations from which you leverage the kind of forward motion your business wants to reach your goals. Focus on this list and prioritize it. Pick one activity and do something to check it off. Keep building on the positive momentum you gain from this activity and move forward some more.
As you achieve more, your focus on these positive situations sharpens like a laser. You discover more positive situations and your attitude shifts from overwhelm—“what I can’t do”—to achievement—“what I can do.”
Focus on Positive Signals
I realized some years ago that my feeling of overwhelm emerges during the holidays more as a reaction to the realization that the year is about to end than anything else. I reflected on what wasn’t done, how little time I had left to do it, and the impending sense that it’ll be undone as I begin the new year.
What I do now and what you can do too is to honestly evaluate what is accomplished toward 2014 goals now. Then strategically act on the positive situations you can now, using your positive strengths accrued through the year. Determine what barriers prevented further growth.
Then assess the positive signals emerging as 2014 nears completion that will serve as your springboard to positive growth in 2015. What are the positive strengths? What are the positive situations? How do these project positive signals in 2015?
Focusing on these positive signals gives you cures your holiday overwhelm gets you excited anticipation for the upcoming new year, and helps you truly enjoy this most wonderful time of the year!
About the Author
Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they get out of the office earlier. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.
