Your best thoughts can come at Christmas

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The Christmas break is often reached at the point of exhaustion. For many there has been months of work without a break, more socialising than normal and a sense of trudging through as it got colder and darker.

When that initial period fades opportunities will arise for your very best thinking, and the chance to shape the year ahead in a different way.

How to find your best thoughts over the break?

Time off means time off

The ‘out of office’ must go on, your work email must be connected from your phone and no plans must be made for any discussion or communication in these golden days away. Forgetting some people even exist sounds cruel but may also be necessary, silence those whatsapp groups as needs be. You need to be at 0% work.

If you have to go into the office between Christmas and New Year, or have an allocated work from home day on the rota, then fine. But do not start work any earlier than you need to, and the same goes at the end of the day. Be functional and matter of fact.

In short, STOP.

Renew your health

This may seem ironic when December can be filled with examples of anything other than healthy behaviour. Your choice whether to keep this going after Boxing Day and abandon all hope of starting a ‘new you’ until January.

As the saying goes, never leave the scene of a decision without starting to take some action towards it.

If you have been working to exhaustion your body will need to find a way of recuperating. That extra hour or two asleep can make all the difference. Get some time outside, rehydrate, build up your exercise.

I remember seeing a picture of myself one December and it was shocking. Dreadful barely begins to describe it.

If your mind is going to operate at a higher level your body needs to be in a better place. Putting it off until January 1st (2nd, 3rd, 4th) is fooling nobody.

Seeing the funny side

Work can take the joy out of life too often, particularly as you fight your way towards Christmas. You can find yourself becoming too different from the person you and others know.

Spending time with people who make you laugh, and watching the TV and films which do the same, will reduce stress. The endorphins alone will make a big difference.

Reacquainting yourself with people you do not see often enough will get your brain into a better place. They can remind you of aspects of your character which have become a little lost, not least that your company is valued and you have the same effect on them.

And as you relax, you will find more things to laugh at.

Avoid filling the days

Although some time off will present lots of opportunities your day is not a schedule. Let things unfold.

When you find yourself thinking, ‘how is it X o’clock already?’ you are going in the right direction. Getting lost in your own thoughts is incredibly valuable. Your brain is finally processing and sorting out what may have been sitting there for months.

Proactively planning to do nothing on a particular day or, even better, several days in a row will pay off handsomely. Let your instincts find what you want to do or not do. When I find myself reaching for a book that I then sit with for hours is a really good sign for me.

Notice which ideas come to you, particularly those ideas which keep coming. Your very best thoughts are emerging.

Journaling

It can feel too much like work to start writing down the thoughts which come to you. Personally I would advocate physical writing in the first instance rather than tapping your phone or booting up your laptop. A little notebook kept close to you, ready to capture anything and everything.

A few minutes every day is all you need, and you do not even have to do that in one stint.

If the blank piece of paper feels overwhelming then try these four questions

1. What am I truly grateful for in my life? Gratitude boosts happiness.
2. What are my successes and wins from the last year? Reflecting on those you missed at the time can boost your mood.
3. Which thoughts keep coming to me? Repeated thoughts are a sign that you need to act.
4. If, in a year’s time, I had experienced a fantastic year what would I have done first?

After a day or two you will have your own as your mind finds a pattern.

I recommend you add the dates to whatever you are writing on and keep it safe so you can return to it in 3 months’ time.

Remember that:

• It is your choice whether to treat the last week of December as any other week, or as an opportunity to start the process of improving your life.
• The cut and thrust of day to day work is not always a conducive environment to find your best thoughts again, or even to remember those you had. You need to capture them in some format.

How I can help you?

1. One to one coaching programmes for senior leaders who are swamped by their jobs so they can thrive in life. Click here to discover where you are on your journey from Frantic to Fulfilled? Just 5 minutes of your time and you will receive a full personalised report with guidance on your next steps!?

2. Team coaching programmes - working IN a team is not the same as working AS a team and yet they are often treated as if they are the same. I help teams move from the former to the latter, and generate huge shifts in productivity and outcomes.?

3. Talks, workshops and seminars - including topics relevant to the two areas above plus explaining Gen Z to Gen X.