Are you pooped? Me too.

Yep that's me in the picture. Flat out pooped!*

It’s highly possible that I write this very same newsletter at this very same time each year. That’s because at this very same time each year:

• I have usually succumbed to some kind of flu-like bug. Tick.
• I’m exhausted. Tick.
• I don't want to get out of bed. Tick.
• The thought of Christmas fills me with dread because I don’t know how I’m going to get through it. Tick.
• ?I still have lots of work to get through before even thinking about a holiday. Tick.
• I’m exhausted. Tick. Tick.
• So nothing new this year.

When I used to work in retail (way back much much earlier in my career) I worked in jewellery stores. Towards the end of that part of my career I managed jewellery stores. The Christmas period in retail is BUSY. For quite a few years I (literally) crawled to Christmas day. Retail work was physcially exhausing. Standing on your feet for hours. Up and down ladders in the stockroom. Setting up for the post Christmas sales. have never had sorer feet than when I worked in retail.

The work I do now is knowledge work, and it's more cognitively exhausting, teamed with sore and tired eyes from staring at a screen for hours on end.?

?I often wonder why I don't learn each year? Maybe put some strategies in place so I don't hate the thought of Christmas? But I don't. Sigh.??

As I was contemplating writing this newsletter I received Kemi Nekvapil 's newsletter. I put Kemi in the category of super smart wise woman and her words of wisdom arrived at the right time. She wrote "Every year I hear variations on the same theme from family, friends and clients: "I am exhausted". Is Kemi inside my head, I wondered?

She went on to say "Two years ago, a Weekly Words reader told me she was ‘crawling to Christmas’. When I responded to her email, I said weeks of crawling would hurt her knees, so how could she pad them just a little?"

Here is the list Kemi wrote two years ago, a list of small and?big 'knee padders' to encourage me and you to do what you need to finish this year upright, mind, body and spirit intact. Note: I would have linked directly to Kemi's Newsletter but at the time of writing she had not posted it to website yet. I recommend subscribing to her Weekly Words.??

I have Kemi's permission to share her words.

1. You do not need to answer the phone the moment it rings. You can respond when you are ready instead of reacting in the moment unless you are a paramedic, in which case ignore this one.?
2. Get into nature more and more and more.
3. Garden lots.
4. Turn off notifications on your phone.
5. Stop responding to emails after a particular time of day and stay ‘stopped.’
6. Set up an out-of-office letting people know you will respond within 24/48/72 hours. (We are happy to wait if we know how long we are waiting.)
7. Go to bed earlier.
8. Wake up later.
9. Drink more water.
10. Buy yourself some luxury bath/shower products and use them.
11. Cancel things.
12. Postpone things.
13. Say no to the unnecessary meeting.
14. Say no to the social event you do not want to attend. ( last year, I had a friend pretend she was only half vaccinated, so she could not participate in an event!) That’s how hard it is for some women to say ‘No.’
15. Don’t do any Christmas shopping - for the last six years, just before Christmas, I take a whole weekend off and make love-filled jams or chutney, and everyone gets the same gift).
16. Watch an old-school comedy – because laughter
17. Make something beautiful.
18. If you can get away, even for a morning or afternoon, get away.
19. Turn off the news.?
20. Hug some trees.
21. Lessen your social media interactions or stop for a period; it will still be there when you return.
22. Write a thank you card to someone who has supported you this year.
23. Nap. Nap. Nap.
24. Let go of anything you think you ‘should’ do.
25. Treat yourself to a big bunch of stunning flowers for your desk/home for the next few weeks.?Or forever, which I highly recommend!
26. Stop listening to podcasts that will ‘improve’ you or your business for the rest of the year.
27. Stop reading personal development books that will ‘improve you’ for the rest of the year. Nap instead.
28. Read the books you loved as a child
29. Lower your expectations of yourself and others.
30. Delete. Delegate. Defer

I hope you find these shared suggestions helpful. Isn't Kemi great? Now to work out which ones I need to do.?

Lisa xx

*Pooped is a technical term for feeling exhausted