Winning the Game of Holidays #4 Energy Burnout

“Better watch out, better not cry, gonna find out who’s healthy and wise”

Okay now, I hope you have the energy for this one because the season isn’t yet over. There’s still plenty of time for burnout. In the Game of Energy it is about the ongoing awareness of how this one gets drained big time because of all the previous 3 (refer to the last 3 blogs on Gamifying the Holidays). It’s also no wonder we feel whipped after the holidays and many people find themselves ‘coming down with something’ because their immune system has been beaten to crap by the end of the year. Or they feel like they need a vacation to recover from their vacation.

So here’s a holiday gift you can give yourself.

First, don’t come into the holidays drained after a long year of slogging it out. By taking care of yourself all year long, eating well, getting enough sleep, you know the drill, you can roll into the holidays with energy reserves. Or you can roll in like a student who has spent the last 5 days awake on multiple cans of 5 hour energy and is so buzzed they don’t realize they are one eye blink from crashing harder than the Hindenburg.

If No is not an option, then Yes is not a Choice!

Do what you need to do during the year and you won’t regret it at the end of the year. But if you didn’t, don’t give up. There’s still a magical power that you can wield that will make a lot of it easier. It’s the gift of NO. Knowing how, when and what to say no about will give you some breathing room to recover from what looks like a marathon of holidays taken at sprint speed. Some game huh?

Learning the extraordinary power of saying “no” when you’re feeling over taxed about going to one more party or family gathering. Think of it this way, if no is not an option then yes is not a choice. Because what are you choosing between? Yes, and only because I have to yes? Yes, and oh please don’t make me, yes?

And for the bravest of you, try this…say no and don’t give an explanation. You’ll see how quickly those around you just accept what you say as a truth for you. You’ll find out fast that no was not a viable choice in the first place even though it was posed as a question or invitation. And here’s my point, you don’t explain yes, so why should you have to explain no to someone with whom your time shared is going to seriously tax your already overtaxed energy reserves. They’re not looking out for you, they’re getting their own needs met.

What you risk by not using the Power of NO in your Gamification of the Holidays, is becoming a walking dead, short tempered, sugar consuming, amped up poseur of a friend or family member because you haven’t given yourself and your well being enough of a priority to show up at full strength when it fits for you to do so.

If you’ve given yourself more space as in Gamify Element #1 – Time, and are not feeling like you have to work extra hard to earn financial space, as in Gamify Element #2 – Money. And you’ve given enough space to make good connections with those who are truly important to you during the year, as in Gamify Element #3 – Relationship,  then you use no to find the reserve of space as in this Gamify Element #4.

And then your holiday experience can be transformed into the joyous event Hallmark keeps telling us it is.  You could easily say no and yes to whatever you need to in order to feel like you can give your full loving energy to everyone, including and especially, yourself.

Posted by Michael Stratford in Gamify for Success.

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