Christmas is coming and it becomes more obvious with each day. Here it is less than a week into December and already neighborhood lawns are decorated with colored lights, reindeer and plastic Santa figures. We even received two Christmas cards yesterday. Now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m feeling rushed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dam I behind schedule? Will I have time to do it all?<\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see there are cards to write and send, decorating to do, lots and lots of wrapping and even a little shopping left. Plus, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve volunteered again to cook Christmas dinner for 15.<\/p>\n
I guess I have three choices. I can:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\tResent the holidays, rush to accomplish the things that have to be done and grumble like an old Scrooge.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\tDownsize Christmas.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\tTake a holiday vacation from the intensity I put into my writing work and thoroughly enjoy the season with family and friends. Oh, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that sound fun? <\/p>\n
So this is my plan\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI mapped it all out last night\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI will spend some time each day from now until Christmas participating in some way in the holiday preparation and I will enjoy the heck out of it. How? By putting myself in the moment. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll allow no more of that ugly mindtalk about what I should be doing or what I must do later. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what keeps one in an exhausted, frenzied state. I will give myself permission to stop writing and stop promoting for an hour or several hours each day and focus completely on a moment or a project related to the holidays. I will do that to varying degrees every single day until Christmas. I may even go to the mall just to be a part of the hustle bustle. And I will attend at least one spiritual event or activity.<\/p>\n
How do you balance your writing work during the holidays?<\/p>\n
If you haven’t ordered your copy of “The Write Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book” at the prepublication discount (good through December 31, 2005), you have only 26 more days. http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/rightway.html <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christmas is coming and it becomes more obvious with each day. Here it is less than a week into December and already neighborhood lawns are decorated with colored lights, reindeer and plastic Santa figures. We even received two Christmas cards yesterday. Now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m feeling rushed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dam I behind schedule? Will I have time to do it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t