The holiday season is upon us. There are just a few weeks until Thanksgiving and then the mad rush until Christmas.  Now is the time to set goals for your holidays.

Holiday goals are short term goals that cover all aspects of life.  These are super important to ensure you have a successful, enjoyable holiday season without regrets. 

Financial Goals

The holidays are an expensive time of the year. Now is the time to set a holiday budget if you haven't already. How much will you spend on gifts? How much on parties? Holiday outfits? Holiday outings and events? 

Setting budgets now will help prevent regret later. Setting budgets and tracking payments allows you to stay in control of holiday spending and not be surprised when the credit card bill comes in January.  

Social Goals

Will you be attending a lot of events this holiday season or are you gonna stay more low key? Look at your calendar now and mark down any events that you already know are happening. Include school events, church events, holiday parties, work parties, and holiday shows. 

Determine your priorities. Which events are more important than others? Color code them so you see at a glance must dos versus nice to dos. This will also help you more easily resolve scheduling conflicts. 

Family Goals

Are you taking trips to visit family this year? Are there family traditions that you want to make sure get done? Make time for these on your calendar.  If it doesn't get scheduled, it doesn't get done.

Don't leave spending time with the people that are important to you to chance.  Block off the time for baking Christmas cookies or picking out a Christmas tree or visiting Great Aunt Cellia. You don't want to wake up after the holidays and realize that you missed your favorite people and traditions.  

Personal Goals

Do you have personal goals for the holidays? Maybe you want to prevent putting on the holiday weight. Maybe you want to devote more time to your church. Maybe you want to be more present with your kids this year instead of always rushing around. Whatever it is make a plan to do it.  

If your goal is to maintain your weight, check out my post on staying fit over the holidays.  If you want to devote more time to church, figure out how you can help for holiday events; ask fellow parishioners for guidance. If you want to be more present, schedule time to be with your kids and consciously try not to check your phone or email, or anything else.

Goal setting and planning ahead is a great way to ensure that you have an enjoyable holiday season and make time for the things that are important to you.  What are your goals for the holidays? What are you doing to make sure that you achieve them? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers,

Emily 

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