What’s Your Christmas Gift To Yourself?

Go on – you deserve it!

Christmas Tree

Christmas is a time for giving so what is your Christmas gift to yourself?

You may not have given that much thought, focusing instead on what you will be giving to others. That is great and an important part of the Christmas spirit, but what about sharing that Christmas spirit with yourself too?

It is a shame that there always seems to be so much to do in the run up to Christmas that when it finally arrives, you feel like collapsing into a chair and have no energy left to enjoy it for yourself.

Is that how it is for you?

But perhaps that’s not so surprising really as this is often how we live our lives week in week out, on a slightly less frantic scale perhaps, but the same collapsing into the weekend in sheer exhaustion with little capacity left to enjoy the days off.

Crazy, isn’t it?

The gift of time


So if you are feeling resistant to the idea of giving yourself a Christmas gift this year, how about just giving yourself the gift of time?

It doesn’t cost anything.  But a little bit of time just for you in the gap between Christmas and New Year could be the beginning of a habit that will make a huge difference not just to Christmas but to the whole of your life.

Yes, there are family gatherings to attend and other Christmas traditions to uphold, but how about creating a new one this year?  A day, half a day or even just an hour of time to yourself where you can just slow down and relax and reflect on how the year has gone for you.

Not an optional extra

Now maybe it is the introvert in me that finds that idea so appealing, but whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, a bit of calm and quiet from time to time when you can recover from the hustle and bustle of life and just take stock, is an essential element of your lifer rather than an optional extra.

Use that space to just switch off the mental chatter of all the things you have to do and first of all just appreciate the moment.  Take a look at my blog on gratitude and see if you can begin to incorporate that into your daily routine. Practising gratitude has certainly made a big difference to me over the last few months.

When you create that space for yourself this Christmas, take a look back over the last year and reflect on how things have gone for you.

  • What things are you proud of?
  • Have you done the things you planned to do?
  • If not, what have you allowed to get in the way?
  • What have you done that was really important to you as opposed to just day to day ‘stuff’?
  • What have you done (or not done) that you will do differently next time?

There are many more things to reflect on, but the key thing is that you give yourself the time to have that reflection, otherwise life just carries on in a mad rush and you never stop to appreciate what you’ve achieved or to learn from the things you wish you hadn’t!

So give yourself the Christmas gift of time this year – you truly deserve it!

Sending you the very best wishes for a joyful and relaxing Christmas!

What do you think?

  • What have been the highlights of the year for you?
  • What have been the key things you have learned from experience?
  • What have you not done that you really will get round to in 2015?

From The 5 Minute Career Coach December 2014

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