Rise Above the Holiday Chaos

by Carolyn Gross

Do the words "Seasons Greetings" make you sigh with delight or create tension in your neck muscles? These are clearly special times that we look forward to, yet the extra activities often throw off our schedules and leave us feeling depleted. How can we make this year a little easier?

In todays world chaos is the constant, and not just for REALTORS. If you want to rise above the chaos, you have to have a plan and take a stand.

A baptist minister, after being assigned to a new parish stayed up half the night to prepare his Christmas message. As the congregation greeted him after the service a 97 year old woman approached him and said "You're operating without any reserve. Go home and get some rest, before you wear your body out. He took the wise lady's advice, and realized she was ministering to the minister that day. How many of us need to heed the same call?

Burnout is at an all time high in this country and it has created a new phenomena called "presenteeism". "Presentesism" happens when people are too worn out or sick to be effective at work. Instead of calling in sick and getting rest, they show up on the job, but are too stressed out to be productive.

The problems of overwork and burnout have escalated as the blurring of the lines between home and work has occurred. We are wired all the time with cell phones, pagers, faxes, email. It used to be just the doctors who were on call 24/7 now it's all of us!

See how you score on this pre holiday Stress Response Test excerpt from the book, "Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos".

Answer yes or no to the following questions:

Count the number of "yes" responses to determine your score:

Since we no longer have work/life separation, we need to develop strategies for work/life integration or we'll start to feel like robots. My suggestion is to develop a "personal crisis reserve account". Just like a savings account where you tuck away money for when you run short, your personal crisis reserve account is about tucking away time. Scheduling an hour or two, maybe a day or two where you get away from the responsibilities and breathe.

Deposits in our crisis reserve account allow us time for human-being, without human-doing.We can rediscover our own inner rhythms of productivity, creativity, and our instincts about what's right for us. Recent studies show too much multi-tasking leads to distraction and a loss of concentration. The next time you feel your holiday schedule is spinning you out of control, it's time to do one thing at a time and invest in your personal crisis reserve account.

Carolyn Gross, an award winning speaker and author, teaches people to Manage Chaos With Confidence. She can be contacted at (760) 741 2762 or visit her website www.carolyngross.com.