Can you really choose a stress-free holiday? That's an option?
It's an option, but likely, not an easy one to choose. One of the habits of emotional intelligence is making choices that cause discomfort in the short term, but align with your vision and goals in the long term.
It's easier (and feels better) to say yes to the demands and expectations this season brings. But saying yes in the short term leads to the stress of trying to juggle too many draining activities, some draining your energy and others draining your bank account.
How to choose a stress-free holiday
First, create a vision of what you want to include in your stress-free holiday. What are your most favorite things about this season? Write down what you want and why you want it. Maybe putting up holiday decorations is really important to you because you like how you feel coming home to a decorated house. Or maybe you love getting together with your close friends this time of year.
Knowing what you want and why you want it will help you to make better choices later on.
One of the habits of emotional intelligence is making choices that cause discomfort in the short term, but align with your vision and goals in the long term.
Second, list out all the holiday tasks/activities/etc that you want to do and that you feel you have to do. Just create a brain dump of it all.
Next, for each item on your list, put a checkmark next to the items that you want to do. Go ahead and schedule them into your calendar if that makes sense for you (or for the item)
For the rest of the items, go through each one carefully and decide if it's something you absolutely must do, or if you can skip it. If it's a must-do, think about ways you can make it easier. Perhaps you could ask for help, or delegate it to a family member.
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Finally, think about how you will set boundaries this holiday season. If you are having trouble coming up with what to say to decline all those holiday invitations, I have you covered. Read my last blog post 20 Ways to Decline a Holiday Invitation here.