Are you feeling the fast whoosh of time passing with the holiday season arriving, the elections looming, and the year ending? It’s a lot to take in. You may feel overwhelmed. Perhaps you’re thinking about what goals you wanted to accomplish this year, the time left to do it, and what is actually possible.

Maybe your thoughts are occupied with ‘regular’ life maintenance to-dos plus hundreds of holiday-related tasks, including gift shopping, holiday meal prepping, guestroom readying, travel planning, and family and friends’ gatherings.

Breathe. You’re human, and you’re juggling many things.

I often say that life is in the joyful doing and presence of the moment. And while that’s all well and good, when you’re stressed and overwhelmed, accessing that presence can be more challenging.

With so much going on with work and family, externally and internally, this time of year, making tiny adjustments is helpful. Infusing compassion and mindfulness into your thoughts and actions will encourage a more joyful, fulfilling, and happier holiday season.

I offer you a thought, question, and strategy to help.

3 Ways to Prepare for a Compassionate Holiday Season

1. One Thought: “We don’t have to be perfect.”

Let’s remove the idea of perfection from the holiday season. Why impose more pressure, stress, or unrealistic expectations on yourself or others?

Try channeling your perfectionism energy differently. Focus your energy on one of these options instead:

• Excellence

• Personal best

• Good enough

• Progress

• Ease

• Done

As the Noom app said about overcoming thought distortions, “…it’s about recognizing that we don’t have to be perfect. We’re human.”

Which reframe of perfectionism (one suggested or something else) is helpful for you?

“Breathe. You’re human, and you’re juggling many things.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

2. One Question: “Am I putting myself in good positions and creating the conditions for success?”

One of my favorite recent discoveries is James Clear’s weekly 3-2-1 email, which my client told me about. The idea he wrote about last month feels relevant and worth sharing.

Clear wrote, “Forget about the outcome and focus on what precedes it.” He asks, “Am I putting myself in good positions and creating the conditions for success?”

Consider Clear’s question in the context of which actions and thoughts you can focus on to create a joyful, compassion-filled holiday season. They might include:

• Planning

• Lowering your expectations

• Creating boundaries

• Simplifying goals and tasks

• Decluttering

• Scheduling rest and renewal time

What will you choose to focus on to create a positive holiday season?

“We don’t have to be perfect.”

— James Clear

3. One Strategy: “Accept help.”

Do you tend to do everything yourself? Perhaps you don’t want to impose on others. Or, Seth Godin suggests you might think, “Doing the tasks is more efficient than coordinating the help.” Either philosophy results in you doing all the work, which can lead to resentment and exhaustion. Neither of those is a recipe for happy holidays.

Whatever the season, enlisting and accepting help improves your life. We’re human and benefit from the support and interactions with others. What type of help will benefit your life and infuse more ease? Who can you ask for help? How will that change your experience? If you’re having guests over and they offer to help, lean in and say “Yes.” Have tasks ready to delegate. It will make them feel comfortable and reduce pressure from your list.

Godin says, “It’s much more productive to accept help. When we have a project, part of the work is to enlist others in figuring out how to make the change we seek.”

Let me know if you’re stressed and need a thought partner, decluttering and organizing guide, planning help, or accountability buddy. In my virtual organizing sessions, I offer one-hour focused sessions, ongoing support, and personalized guidance to help you with your goals and challenges. I’m available and am ready to help.

Human Holiday

Do you know the 1953 movie Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck? This season, I encourage you to embody a Human Holiday.

• Let go of what you can.

• Invite in what you want.

• Enlist the help you need.

For a less stressful and happier holiday season and beyond, I’m here to help. Please schedule a Discovery Call, email me at linda@ohsorganized.com, or call 914-271-5673. Organization and ease are possible, especially with support.

Is it only me, or has your plate also become fuller since the start of the fall season? After returning from our last trip of the summer, reality hit.

There were workshops to create and make progress on. Interactions with new, returning, and potential organizing clients ramped up, and volunteer activities went into full gear. Add to these the holidays, upcoming conference travel, and my new Mindful Organizing workshop launching this week. These make my to-do list more intense than usual. This burst of activity pulses through my mind and body.

While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with having a full plate, I am reminded of a mindfulness meditation practice I worked with a while ago. Using the Insight Timer app, I listened to Justin Francisco’s meditation, Drop Your To-Do List and Just Be. It was a message I needed to hear. After meditating, I added a note to my to-do list about using this idea for a future blog post. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

It was also helpful to understand the difference between Justin’s Just Be List and my To-Don’t List, which I’ve written about before.

Justin makes the case about the benefits of taking time to just be and do nothing. This seems more viable when we’re on vacation or have less going on. I get that. I am internally driven to accomplish and be productive, but I sometimes struggle to reconcile how much I need those deep pauses. However, I have experienced the value of stopping, even briefly, and recognize the tremendous benefits of taking do-nothing breaks.

What are you in the thick of?

• Are you overwhelmed with the clutter in your home?

• Are you frustrated with your organizing systems?

• Is your schedule overflowing?

• Are you trying to create a better balance between work and personal time?

• Are you working on new projects, which make it difficult to focus on anything else?

• Is your to-do list so extensive that you can’t decide what to do next?

“There are tremendous benefits to taking do-nothing breaks.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Just Be List

When you have a lot going on, it may feel like the obvious first step is to take action and work more. While those will be essential to move forward, consider this alternative. When your mind is racing and you’re stressed, it’s more challenging to focus. This is an excellent time to pause and do nothing. You’ll return refreshed after your do-nothing break. You can mindfully. . . 

• Stare out of the window.

• Step outside to feel the sun and cool fall breeze on your skin.

• Sit and close your eyes for a few moments.

• Lay down with a cozy blanket and take a short nap.

• Plop onto the couch and stare at the ceiling.

• Notice the inhale and exhale movements of your breath.

• Listen to the sounds around you.

• Watch the flames flicker as you smell the scent of your favorite candle.

While doing nothing, do only that. No scrolling, list-making, or thinking about what you’ll do next. If doing nothing feels too challenging, set a timer. Give yourself 10, 15, or 20 minutes to disengage. When the buzzer dings, return to your to-list and select one small thing to focus on.

Notice how that felt. In which ways was your pause beneficial? After your break, did you feel refreshed? Were you more motivated? Could you more easily select and engage in that next small action step? How will you experiment again with just being?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

We’ve all been through a lot with the pandemic, change, loss, political unrest, uncertainty, and this sense that life is and will continue to be different. We’ve had to be flexible, resilient, and creative. Last year, many of us canceled Thanksgiving and other holidays that we usually celebrated. Instead, we found different ways to “be together.” Zoom was our new best friend. It was a lost year of non-celebrations and sadness for some of us because we missed the human contact and in-person gatherings. 

Personally, I’ve felt a great hole from the loss of my mom, who died this year. Yet somehow, as the months have passed, while I miss her greatly, I’m also feeling such gratitude for the wonderful people who are here. Through the tumult, friends, family, and colleagues have brought moments of joy and lightness to a challenging time. We’ve stayed connected through texts, emails, phone calls, social media, Zoom, FaceTime, and in person. 

My conversations this fall, which often were “walk and talks,” covered everything from challenges to successes, plans, hopes, dreams, family, friends, work, travel, feelings, stories, tears, laughter, and so much more. Many of these treasured moments happened while we walked side-by-side, taking in the beautiful views of nature or hearing the crunch of the leaves as our feet made contact with the forest floor. 

What does any of this have to do with organizing? Organizing can be about managing our physical stuff and also how we use and prioritize our time. Between pivoting my business to virtual organizing and letting go of things to “live with less,” I made time to stay connected. Life isn’t all about working and doing. It’s also about having time with the special people in your life. 

“Life isn’t all about working and doing.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

I am so profoundly grateful for my family, friends, colleagues, and clients. Life would not be the same without you. There are too many people to name. But I’d like to give a special shout-out to my wonderful husband, Steve, our amazing kiddos Cassie and Allison, and beautiful friends old and new Joanne, Yota, Christine, and Juliet. Thank you for the many ways you share your wisdom, love, and light.

Grateful for wonderful family and friends who bring their special blend of wisdom, compassion, humor, love, and light to this world.

As we navigate the holiday season, who do you want to connect with? Who are you grateful for? How do you connect with the people most important to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Motivation is a funny thing. It can appear in full strength, seemingly out of nowhere. Or, it can be so hard to find that you think it is lost forever. As my husband recently said, this season’s mood can feel like the “lazy days of summer.” Perhaps you’re experiencing the desire to not do, not strive, but instead relax, enjoy, and stop accomplishing. You might want to enjoy BBQ time with friends and family, swimming in water bodies, or exploring new places. All of that is perfectly normal, especially after the year we’ve had. But if you are struggling with getting motivated and want to activate, I have some ideas to share with you. 

There have been several situations I’ve either experienced or observed where the motivation juices were stirred. Maybe one of these will resonate with you. The next time you’re in need, you’ll be able to tap into one of these strategies to help.

3 Helpful Ways to Increase Your Motivation

1. There’s Nothing Like a Deadline

Allison Samuels, Maker - Two Tree Studios

Are you more motivated to complete something if you are under pressure because of a deadline? I’m not advocating waiting until the last minute, but I have seen and experienced how a deadline imposed by the self or others can motivate us to get stuff done. Last week our daughter, Allison, had a gallery show opening at Room 68 in Provincetown with her beautiful “transformed objects.” While she worked on designing and conceptualizing the pieces for a while, the big push to complete them came close to the delivery date. One of the finishes she uses involves burning the wood, which creates a gorgeous black finish. It was as if the fire that brought the pieces into their final stages also lit her motivation to create them.

Motivation Takeaway:  If you’re having trouble activating, set a deadline. It might just be the fire you need to complete your project.

2. The Thrill of the Hunt

Lyle Puente, Chef - Put Some Meat On Your Bones

A few weeks ago was Father’s Day. One of the gifts I gave my husband was a date. An article we read and loved in Westchester Magazine about the best local food trucks inspired the gift. We picked a time to go, chose Steve’s favorite food truck, and ate a delicious lunch. Talk about seeing motivation in action. I watched as he deep dove into the article and created a list of his top four favorites with pros, cons, contact info, and more. He then reached out by email to confirm if they were open and where they were located. We took a walk first and hoped that someone would respond to his inquiry. We decided that even if no one got back to us, we’d chance it and hunt for one of the food trucks. His number one choice, Put Some Meat on Your Bones, owned by chef Lyle Puente, confirmed his location and hours. We were delighted, hungry, and motivated to drive to the truck. Those were the most delicious grilled cheese sandwiches we ever ate! 

Motivation Takeaway:  If your motivation is waning, consider how anticipation about trying something new can work its magic.

“If your motivation is waning, consider how anticipation about trying something new can work its magic.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

3. Clear the Decks Before Putting Your Luggage in the Car

Ocean Grove, NJ

I mentioned how summer is a prime vacation season. Especially because of the stay-in-place orders we experienced this past year, people want to travel. While vacations can be relaxing or enervating, they usually bring a much-needed break and change of scenery. But before we can experience those wonderful benefits, we need to prepare. There is planning, researching, reserving, list-making, organizing, doing laundry, holding mail, packing, and wrapping up last-minute projects. We can energize and accomplish even more when we attach it to this travel motivation. 

We have a few mini-vacations this summer, including going to the Catskills, the Cape, and the Jersey Shore. Before I go away, I like the house to be clean and organized. I call this clearing the decks. Pillows are fluffed, rooms get quick-cleaned, trash and recycling go out, desk papers are filed, bills are paid, electronics get unplugged, and the fridge contents are edited. Things get returned to their spots. Loose ends are tied up, which helps me let go physically, emotionally and enjoy the time away. This extra prep makes our place welcome-home-ready. After being away for a few nights or more, there’s nothing better than returning to a calm, relaxing home.

Motivation Takeaway:  If you’re finding it challenging to bring organization and calm to your living space, harness the motivational energy that comes with vacation prep to help you get there.

Are you feeling challenged motivationally? What helps you get motivated? Did one of these strategies resonate with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.