Your Best December Ever

Intro:
I know you’re thinking about business. You’re thinking about work and what do you want to do for your holiday celebrations. You got projects and programs and parties and people and you’re pooped just thinking about it, right? So much going on. So let’s take some time, just a few minutes and get a handle on all this stuff.

Music / Intro:
Welcome to An Owner’s Guide for Your Life, the podcast that combines psychology, coaching, common sense and fun. I’m Tracey Browning, an entrepreneur, life coach and lover of people. Now let’s talk about how to live, love, make money and change the world.

Tracey:
Hey, I’m glad you’re here. ‘Here’ is early December. Can you believe it? I can’t. My gosh. Where has the year gone? What usually happens in December? We all start looking at, oh, my goodness, all the stuff we want to get done, that we’ve got to get done in the month. And then we’re looking back over what we’ve done or haven’t done over the year. And we’re probably also trying to plan ahead for the upcoming year. There’s a lot of stuff going on.

You’re thinking about business, you’re thinking about work and what do you want to do for your holiday celebrations. You got projects and programs and parties and people and you’re pooped just thinking about it, right? So much going on.

So let’s take some time, just a few minutes and get a handle on all this stuff. We can do it. I have confidence in us.

All right, so here’s what I want you to do. Picture yourself. It’s New Year’s Eve, and you’re getting ready to celebrate. Maybe it’s a big blow out. I don’t know, but you’re not at the big blowout yet if it is. Okay, you’re sitting with your best friend and you’re looking back just over the month of December and you turn and you look at your friend and say, “That was my best December ever.”

Now what made it the best December ever? What exactly made it the best December ever? And take some time to fill in the details with this. Think about your work. Start with your work first. What would make your work the best December ever? What projects, deadlines, money situations, maybe you want to land a particular client, maybe there’s something going on with people in your work, maybe just keeping what you’ve got going on on track is the absolute best thing that can happen for you this month. You’re the one who knows this stuff. I don’t know it. What’s going on in your professional world this month in December, that would be just phenomenal to have happen or not happen or accomplished? So think about your work details.

Now think about your personal life, your commitments to yourself, to your family, to your community, maybe to your church. What would make this December the best ever for you and your personal life? Again, go for the details. Is it getting or giving a special present? You need to be on that if you haven’t already done it. Is it just making it through some of your family traditions and your celebrations without your kids melting down? Be simple. Be complex. Whatever you need to be with this. It’s not a right or wrong thing. Just think about it.

Our objective here isn’t for us to work towards perfection on everything. We’re not aiming for the most perfect December ever. We’re aiming for the best. Okay? And best is not necessarily perfect because perfection entails a lot of stress.

So our goal with this exercise is to fill in some details to help us gauge what really matters and what’s possible, what’s realistic and what would make a great month for us. How are you going to know if you had a great month? Of course we could say I’ll just look back and I’ll just know. That’s a cop out answer. Yeah, of course we can look back and know. Okay. I thought it was good or I didn’t, but why not spend some time thinking about what would make it a great month? Do you define it by financial goals? Are you thinking more in line of what you’ve accomplished? Are you thinking about feelings? I don’t know. It’s a great month because I will feel this particular way. I’ll feel accomplished. I’ll feel loved. I will feel like I’ve given love to the people that matter to me. Maybe it’s a combination. Is your best month ever determined by things that happen or don’t happen? How much control do you have over your activities again? Not right or wrong answers here. Just give it some thought and be aware.

Now, here’s the step that can give you even a little bit more clarity. If you want to take a few more minutes, look at the flip side of this. You’re sitting here on New Year’s Eve talking to your best friend, and you look at them and say, “This December was an absolute disaster.”

What went wrong? Anything you could control? Anything you couldn’t control? What part did you play in it? We’re just imagining this. None of these imagined scenarios are likely to actually happen, as you exactly imagine them right now. We’re just looking for you taking the time to be thoughtful, to be aware.

You can do this exercise with an event. You can do it with a project. You can do it with a relationship.

Consider the part that you have in the success or failure of it.

Consider how you define the success or failure of your event, your project or relationship.

Think about what really matters when you’re clear and you’re aware of what a successful best ever month or best ever project or the relationship of your dreams looks like. When you’re aware of what that looks like, it’s easier to see the path where your work is, what you need to do. It’s easier to see what matters.

When I’m talking about this, yeah, I always have different songs going on in my head. Usually I’m good for at least one song a day. That just kind of, it’s like, what do they call it? An earworm. In my head just over and over and over. Today’s song is brought to you by, and I almost feel like Sesame Street here, today’s song is from The Eagles- Already Gone. So here’s the part that I’m singing over and over in my head.

“So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key.”

One of the keys to not living our lives in chains is to OWN our life, is to choose what we want instead of just drifting along in the current, letting it take us wherever. And maybe we get things that make us happy. Maybe we don’t. Maybe we achieve, maybe we don’t.

to be Proactive instead of reactive or even non-active. And yes, I know that non-active is actually passive, but I was doing a word play with active and that didn’t fit.

So we want to be proactive instead of reactive or non-active. Life can be easier, and it can be much more enjoyable when we give ourselves time to make the things happen that matter to us.

Imagine how you’ll feel on New Year’s Eve sitting there telling your best friend, “This is the best December I’ve ever had!”

And remember, we all have control over the thoughts and feelings we decide to spend time and energy on. And the thoughts and feelings- that’s what leads us to action and that’s where we get our results.

We can’t control the other people. We can’t always control the things happening around us, but we CAN make our choices- thoughtful, aware choices for ourselves.

So spend a few minutes today thinking about what would make this the best December ever. What exactly? Maybe write it down, write a few things down and just let your brain work. Because your brain will do that. Your brain will work in the background to help you achieve the things that will make it your best December ever.

I’m excited thinking about this because I’m not just telling you to do it. I’m doing it myself. I’m working through this exact exercise for my very own best ever December. So let’s do it. Let’s make it our best December ever.

For a transcript of this episode or for more information about life and mindset coaching, visit my website https://www.tbrowning.com/.