Whack the Year-End Overwhelm!

It’s November! You’d be hard-pressed to take on a sun-baked slug. Panic... Christmas displays herald the end of yet ANOTHER year! Alarm bells shrill for the dreaded roller-coaster-adrenaline-rush to the finish, including festive highs, dead-line lows and insane doses of intense fellowship over the what, when and how of Christmas festivities!

Well, I bring you tidings of great joy – a good start to transform the hair-raiser to a brilliant journey, but, if, and only if, you’re willing to STOP long enough to take stock of the business of YOU. How to pull the year to a brilliant close, radiating more love, peace and joy than toxic waste on those near and dear to you? How to glide into the holiday season, fresh enough to actually enjoy it, rather than merely grinding up enough energy to ... what? Do it all again?

I could regale you with a lovely little list of de-stress tips – about as helpful as pouring more sand on your head when you’re trying to extricate yourself from a quicksand scenario! First we need to soothe your poor brain enough to let it know that you’re not in imminent peril of being taken out by your TO DO list! Because we all know that under threat, the brain needs our energy to fight, flight or freeze, hence not leaving much to DO anything else!

Inspired by Covey’s Time to Sharpen the Saw Habit, let’s paint a possible picture of your current reality... There’s a forest of trees to cut down before the year’s out – so dense, the end’s not even in sight. So you’re driven to keep hacking away at what’s immediately in front of you, a-hoping an’ a-praying you come out the other end, relatively intact, with a semblance of sanity. Not too efficient... chances are you’re chopping trees you don’t need to, using ineffective tools, failing to identify resources and not using time efficiently.

What about another possibility... Get the big picture of the apparent forest you face. Pin-point only the ‘trees’ that need felling to make it through. Identify specific and efficient tools and resources for particular trees. Estimate the time required for each tree. Calculate your time-frames and availability. Break it down & allocate realistic slots to each tree. Voila, stress dissipates – your brain gets that you can do this!

If you’re up for the challenge, grab paper, pen and diary or, of course, smart device for the techno-hip. DOWNLOAD FREE SALSA TOOL Just do it NOW or at least allocate a time in your diary for this exercise.