$pent Millennial

Not another holiday blog post… If that’s what you are thinking, you are in luck. This isn’t. I had planned a fun tale of holiday shopping shenanigans or Secret Santa shopping on a budget tips, but I got nothing. The truth is, here we are 2 days before Christmas (Christmas Eve Eve if you will), and I haven’t finished my shopping – so, no tips to be had. An easy post might be a holiday recipe to share, but I got nothing there either…

So, instead of a festive story or a practical “How To”, I share with you today a permission slip. A permission slip that you don’t need from me, but I am offering it anyway. It is the permission slip I have given myself for this weekend, permission to let it go, drop the ball, let yourself off the hook- just this once, for the weekend and impending holiday. 

All week I had been hammering on myself about this extremely ambitious policy manual edit project for work that I “needed” to get done by (my self-imposed) deadline before signing off for Christmas. As the days passed, and we got closer and closer to the Christmas weekend, I found myself getting more stressed, not less. I was missing out on the excitement of the nearing long weekend and the much-needed chance to unplug and reset. I was so wrapped up in my deadline, a deadline that mattered quite literally only to myself. 

This self-imposed deadline was driving me crazy and making me miserable. The stress manifested physically as my shoulders moved closer and closer to my ears, tensing my upper back and shoulder muscles in stress. It wasn’t until mid-day Friday, December 22nd when I realized the deadline just wasn’t happening that I let myself off the hook. I told myself the project would still be there come January, and I would be much better equipped to finish it then. As I accepted this as true, my shoulders lowered and, slowly, my anxiety about the coming holiday changed to joy. 

I could stop worrying about my work deadline and start thinking about the holiday and the weekend leading up to it. As I did, I started to think of all that I had to do this weekend with holiday shopping to finish, baking and recipes to work on, etc… I started thinking of how it would all fit into the coming days. As I did, I felt my shoulders begin to tense up again. I began to get discouraged again, worrying that I wouldn’t have time to truly relax with holiday movie favorites and that my mind and body would be so wrapped up in holiday doings that I would miss out on the opportunity to relax and reset- something I desperately need. 

One big block of time that would be hard to get around was the making and posting of this very blog post. I imagined the hour or two that would be spent on this. What would I write about anyway? I didn’t have any ideas. My creativity had been muted from going through policy manual drafts all week.  I still wasn’t feeling very holly jolly, I hadn’t done my shopping and had no festive recipes to boast of. The truth is, this post was just another thing on my holiday ToDo list. One that I wanted to wiz by, so that I could get on with the next. And then I realized, it didn’t matter. I didn’t even need to do a post this week. Nobody is spending their Christmas week waiting around to see what I post on my blog. It is quite possible nobody will even read this at all. It really just isn’t that important. So, there I had it. I was off the hook for, yet another, self-imposed deadline. And it felt great! 

So great in fact that I decided I would share it. It isn’t your typical holiday post, and I didn’t spend an hour, or two or more drafting, crafting, and writing it, but this is my gift to you—the gift of a permission slip. 

So, here I invite you to join me in letting go of whatever self-imposed expectation has you holding your breath as your shoulders tense, rising closer and closer to your ears. Whether it is the 2 dozen cookies you think just “have to be homemade”, the bedding in the children’s rooms that really don’t need to be changed before guests come, a work email that nobody will read until next year anyways, or something else entirely…

I give you (unsolicited) permission to (check all that apply): 

• Let it go
• Drop the ball 
• Let yourself off the hook

This holiday weekend, enjoy the time with friends, family, or just your own company. Don’t let the seasonal pressures get in the way of seasonal joys and memories to be made. 

Permission Granted by: 

One Very Spent Millennial

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!