The Business Owner’s Top 10 Holiday Stress-Busting Tips

Here are the signs you are businessperson stressed by the holidays:

Can’t sleep: You lie awake mulling over to do lists and finances

Irritability: Your easy going ways are a way of the past

Unhealthy overeating of “comfort” foods: Where one helping used to be enough, you now take two or three

Feelings of overwhelm: You feel the weight of your work, immediate family and extended family

Headaches, muscle pain, tiredness

1. Prepare your business for the holidays

In your work, the holiday season may mean a slump or a boom depending on the nature of your business. Understand the trend for your industry and adjust accordingly. You may need to hire temporary help or cut expenses. Preplanning can make this time of year easier for everyone.

2. Do only what you love regarding holiday traditions.

For me it means turkey on Thanksgiving. For Christmas that means decorating a tree, sending Christmas cards and when my children were small, preparing stockings filled with inexpensive but imaginative goodies. Everything else and I mean EVERYTHING else is negotiable in our family. Pulling off the baking of 6 different kinds of holiday cookies can be exhausting. Yes, it is fun, if that is your thing, but there may be a way to have the fun and simplify the process. Think of creative ways to do ONLY what you love that uplifts and energizes you.

3. Make a budget and stick to it creatively.

This can take real discipline for those who look at the holidays as a time for lavish gifts. With careful planning and rethinking our values, we can make this happen. We get used to the high a pricey gift brings, but dealing with the financial aftermath can go on for months after the event… and long after the high is gone. You may need to train those around you that staying within a budget is a value for you and that creative gift giving is a value. Remind yourself that your love is not measured by the dollar value of a particular gift.

4. Choose your holiday activities carefully

You don’t need to attend every holiday party that comes up. Determine ahead of time which ones you will really enjoy, and decline other invitations. Time, like money, is one of your most precious commodities during the holidays. Budget it carefully as you would your hard earned dollars.

5. Rest if you are feeling tired or ill.

This seems obvious, but many people just keep going in spite of long hours at work and doing for their family. This is usually a guarantee that you will get even more stressed. Take breaks when you need them.

6. Delegate

You really don’t have to do everything yourself. Your family, even if you have very young children can take over certain jobs. One of my fondest memories of Christmas was putting on all the unbreakable ornaments on the lower half of the tree. I was probably three and a half. There are professionals that you can hire to do little jobs that you have decided are important, but don’t have time for.

7. Be realistic about Relatives

During the holidays, we come in contact with family members that we don’t see at other times of the year. Remind yourself that they will not be anyone but who they really are. As much as you can, accept them as themselves, and if they are difficult, have strategies for taking care of yourself. Remind yourself that you can only control yourself and don’t need to be responsible for the behavior of others. If a relative crosses your boundaries in a way that diminishes you, feel free to quietly remove yourself from the situation. Never subject your minor children to abusive or inappropriate behavior from relatives.

8. Keep up your exercise routine

It is easy to let this go as the weather grows colder, but at this time more than any other, you need the stress reducing effects that only exercise can give. Make it a priority.

9. Give yourself a Gift that revives

Women, this may be a spa gift certificate; men, a round of golf? It could be a certificate for time to yourself. Wrap it and make it special. Open it on that special day. Selfish? Not really, especially if it is something that will refresh and result in more energy to give those you love.

10. Remember you are only human

If you mess up, and things are less than perfect in your holiday world… (you overeat, overspend, lose it with grandma, buy the totally wrong gift… whatever) give yourself a break. You do not have to be Superman or Superwoman (or Super Santa) to the world.

Your peace of mind is priceless, especially in the holiday season. You simply can’t do everything and please everyone. The holidays can be a joyous time to do what you love and do best.

Happy planning for a stress free holiday season, business and life!