How To Sustain Your Momentum and Get Through Holidays

You Better Watch Out.....

Do you know the rest of that jingle? "You better watch out. You better not-------. No, the word here is not "pout". It is "stall".

Holidays are stall-out times. This when people lose momentum on the progress they have been making all year. Oh, I know: it's the holidays. We're all busy. Time is short. Money is short. Tempers are shorter. Energy is all used up and those projects you and your coach have been working on get shuffled to the back of the bus.

Keep the forward movement. Sure, for very good reasons you may slow down a bit. We do have other things in our lives besides work or personal goals. But keep on keeping on.

Five Tips To Prevent Stalling:

1. Make an appointment with your coach and discuss how to keep the fires in your project(s) burning. Maybe not red-hot burning, but alive.

2. Cast an eye over the last few months-- at least three, better six. Take stock of your progress and successes. Have a celebration with at least one other person to mark and acknowledge your successes to date. Do not trivialize your successes or over look them. Success builds success.

3. Set a time with your coach to re-convene after holidays to set new goals, strategies and time tables.

4. Accept that holiday pressures cannot be easily resisted. The culture itself, to say nothing of weather, family and friends almost demand we give attention to things other than our personal goals. It is a season to simply get through.

5. As you have time and energy, journal about your dreams for the next phase of work and effort toward realizing your goals. Use these musing in the next meeting with your coach as the talking points to renew the embers of your passions and desires for success.

Fly lower and slower. But, keep flying.

A licensed psychologist, Paul W. Anderson, Ph.D. has coached people in their careers, relationships and recovery aspirations for many years. From him, many have learned how to defy the odds and avoid relapse.