Less is more
It’s been a massive year for many of us and I’m sure I’m not the only one who is counting down the days until the holidays. I feel like I’m kinda limping over the finish line. More tired than I wanted to be when I got to this point.
To be honest, I don’t really like admitting that, especially since it wasn’t my intention at all, and I’ve spent many hours helping other people to not do that in their lives. But here I am…an imperfect, messy human, just like everyone else!
Life has been particularly lifey this year. A true rollercoaster of life experiences. There have been so many wins and I’m super proud of the goals that I’ve ticked off both personally and professionally. On the other side of the coin, it’s probably been one of the most challenging years I’ve had since those crappy lockdown years. The daily juggle of parenting, running a business and supporting my family through bereavement and ongoing health challenges has been real.
My mantra for much of this year has had to be “less is more”.
Like many of you, I love being a “yes” person and I’m somewhat of an expert at excessive goal setting and holding lofty expectations of myself. So this year I’ve really had to check myself. I’ve had to be real clear on what’s important, use my values as a filter for my decisions, dig deeper into the practice of self-compassion, lean on my support network and focus on the small wins. I’ve had to do the work we do with you, on myself.
And actually doing the work with you makes it easier to do the work on myself, as I get to turn up and really walk my talk. Looking after our wellbeing is an ongoing practice, we don’t always get it right….permission to be a slow learner… and begin again.
So the opportunity to push pause is on the horizon. I can’t wait. We’re heading up north in our caravan for 3 weeks by the beach. This year I know I really need to disconnect my work brain and give myself the opportunity to just be, to live a bit more in the present and soak up the holiday goodness.
Last year I set myself a “disconnecting” challenge over the holidays to see if I could create some more space between work and the holidays. Rather than trying to rely on willpower I decided that changing my main environmental cue would probably work better. So I deleted all my social media apps and removed my work email accounts from my phone. My phone only had a few key functions over that time - talk to people, organise meeting people in person and taking photos. It was so great!
No random scrolling
No checking of email accounts (even when you knew you’d put your out of office on)
No pressure to post about what you’re up to
Which made space for
More time to be in the moment
More time to read books
More time to actually just do nothing
Interestingly some of those social media apps never made it back to my phone - no IG at all this year and FB only in web version (which is so sucky you hardly want to use it anyway). Work emails and LinkedIn came back of course.
I’m going to do it again this year but with another little tweak. I’m going to try to call people more rather than send umpteen messages back and forth. More personal connection, less screen time. And I’m wondering what it would be like to experiment with not putting my work emails or LinkedIn back on my phone next year too? But I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
How about you?
Will you be disconnecting a bit more from the busyness these holidays?
How could you tweak your environment to help you do that?
~Kirsten
