Episode 73: The Holiday Rollercoaster: How to Protect Your Time When Life Speeds Up
ITUNES | SPOTIFY
It's never too early to start planning. In fact, I highly recommend it! As we step into the final stretch of the year, it’s easy to feel the pressure of a full calendar, holiday planning, and unfinished goals. In this episode, I’m sharing why the start of Q4 can feel like sitting at the top of a rollercoaster—and how you can take back control before the ride speeds up. You’ll learn simple ways to set intentions, plan ahead, and create a season you’ll actually enjoy (without the stress and burnout). And if you'd like me to learn my holiday planning framework and have me guide you through the process step-by-step, join me and a community of working moms on November 6th for Stress Less This Holiday. Learn more and get your ticket at www.themothernurture.com/holiday.
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
Tidbyt (sorry I think it's sold out!)
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You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Hey, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Can you believe that tomorrow? Yeah. Tomorrow is the start of Q4, the final three months of the year. I may have mentioned this before, but one of my many previous jobs was to work at a marketing agency in the consumer packaged goods industry where everything wasn't acronym.
So even consumer packaged goods, we would say CPG. And so tomorrow marks the beginning of OND. It's what we would call it, october, November, December, that final quarter of the year. How are you feeling? What comes up for you when you think about it in that way? I received an email from. Strength trainer that I follow.
I love some of her recipes and workouts, and she sent an email over the weekend and the subject line was something along the lines of 95 days left in the year, 95 days left in 2025. And so I'm sure by now we're closer to 90 days. And that definitely triggered something in me. On all sorts of levels. I thought about the holidays that are coming up the calendar.
I thought about my goals for the year. I thought about just everything that I had envisioned in 2025 and having 90 days to wrap it all up, which of course is not true. We create our own timelines, always.
But still it can be a little confronting , and I shouldn't be surprised because we actually have this super fun digital display board in our kitchen. I got it for my husband years ago. I can put a link to it in the show notes, but I'm pretty sure it's been sold out for forever. So I am sorry. I'm one of those people that's recommending something that you can't actually get.
It's called a tidbit. But anyway, the point is you can customize it in terms it of what it shows. So you could put a quote up there. You can have a vocabulary word of the day, you can put. Scores from your favorite hometown teams up there. I love to put the phase of the moon displaying up there for everyone or for a while we had Pokemon characters displaying and one of the things that he put up there unprompted by me, but he put up is this display bar.
That shows the percentage of the year complete, kind of like a goal gauge, and that has been up there all year. So it is not a surprise to me that we are, that bar is mostly full
and yet here I am, just like you feeling a little confronted by it, I think turning a calendar page, turning a new quarter, thinking about where we are in the year can certainly bring up anxiety, but it doesn't have to. If you are thinking about your schedule intentionally, it can also just be a marker of what you already know is happening.
You're not alone. If you are feeling a little bit of anxiety creeping in this time of year. So common. It's coming up in my client sessions, it's coming up in my community. There's this push or this pressure to start planning and making decisions and get quote unquote ahead of things. I always compare this time of year.
When we move into the ber months OND feeling, like sitting at the top of the big hill on the big rollercoaster, the car is just creeping over the top and you are just about to swoosh down the big hill at top speed because it is about to be a downhill ride. What a fun thing, or at least that's one way you could choose to see it if you want to.
The good news is you are here, you're listening to this episode, and I've got you. You are going to be reminded today and moving forward to look ahead, to plan ahead, to make decisions in advance because that's what we do around here. And I need that reminder just like you do right now, because I know, and you know also that pretty soon, if it hasn't already, the calendar is starting to fill up.
Pretty soon you will be in the thick of planning menus and family get togethers and trying to make sure that the season is magical, that everyone is. Having a somewhat good time or that everyone stays healthy, that you're doing enough and that you're thinking about the next year, you'll go from one celebration to the next, just trying to stay a step or two ahead.
And the last thing I want for you is to get to the end of this quarter, the end of the year, and simply feel relieved that it's over. To be so tired and exhausted and wiped out that you can barely remember what happened or to feel like there was so much to do that you missed out on a lot of it.
What was it all for? If you can't really enjoy it? This season in particular, yes. But we could also ask the same question of our everyday lives if we're not present for it. If we're so busy doing all of the things, just trying to get through the list for the day, what is the point?
And I wanna offer that to have the opposite experience of that doesn't take that much honestly.
It doesn't take that much, which is why once again, I am bringing back my annual holiday planning workshop. I wanna take you through the simple step-by-step process.
Of zooming out, of thinking ahead and visualizing ahead and making decisions quickly, intentionally, and in advance so that you can wrap up the year, the season with energy still in the tank, and memories that you are actually present for. So if you wanna mark it down on your calendar, stress less this holiday.
My annual holiday planning workshop is happening on Thursday, November 6th. You can get your ticket now if you want. Why not put it on the calendar? Book it in, get some accountability to show up live and do the work. You can get your ticket at themothernurture.com/holiday, H-O-L-I-D-A-Y. Now, I have run this workshop for five years because it's something that I need year after year.
I started it initially because I desperately needed it, and I still need that checkpoint each and every year. And I hear also from everyone who attends year after year that it makes all the difference in how you experience this last quarter of the year. So this is a 90 minute training that will give you the time you have to put it on your calendar, show up live.
'cause otherwise it's so hard to make ourselves do these things. Trust me, I know. You'll use this time to look holistically at the upcoming calendar, not the daily Google or Outlook view, or you've got all the different things, but you're gonna zoom out and look at the next couple of months. So that you are not surprised by anything.
You will know what is coming. What you need to do and have a framework for making a plan that won't leave you rushing around or scrambling at the last minute. So whether you celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or some other holiday, if you have family birthdays in this season to honor teacher, gifts to purchase for the end of the year, plans for the new year, school breaks, performance reviews at work, or anything else that falls as it all seems to fall at the end of the year, you will be prepared and when you are prepared.
You can relax because you can just work your plan instead of worrying that you're forgetting something, second, guessing your decisions, or wondering if you're doing enough. Your past self will have already made those decisions for you. All you have to do is work the plan and follow through.
And if you have trouble following through one, come to the workshop because there's accountability baked into that. And two, listen to episode 60 of the podcast. It's called Tired of Not Following Through. It's a great episode. It's gotten great feedback. So here's the thing. There is a very critical step that
so many people skip, and I used to skip it too, honestly, because time feels short, right? It's already practically October 1st, and you tell yourself that you don't have the time to pause and do this, and that is pausing to look at the big picture. When you don't go into a season, especially one as busy as the end of the year with an intention, with an idea of what it is that you want to experience or how you want the season to feel, what's actually important to you, what happens is
you fall back on your defaults. You'll do what you've always done just because it's what you've always done. You'll say yes because you don't have a better idea of what you could be doing with your time.
You'll have loose, if any boundaries because you haven't decided in advance what those boundaries are, and you'll do more and more because you also haven't decided what is enough to support the goal or the vision or the intention that you have for this season. You could have the best to-do list, the most color coordinated schedule.
But if you don't know what you want out of the season, if you don't know how you want to feel, you will probably end up dissatisfied and honestly burned out or exhausted. It's not much different from the way I teach daily planning or managing a to-do list. You have to set the finish line for yourself at the start of the day or the start of the week.
You have to know what you're working towards so that when you cross it off, you know it and you feel it. You can put your pencil down. You did what you set out to do. Well, the same is true for this upcoming season. For this very busy, very full demanding season. What is it that you want? How will you know when you've achieved it?
Then the planning becomes about just honoring that intention, that wish for how you want to feel and what you want this to be all about. While Yes. Still. Also making sure that the gifts get purchased, that you have childcare for school break, and you purchase enough pumpkin to bake your pie in the workshop, Stress Less This Holiday, I teach you and guide you through both making the time to set your intention. I will hold your feet to the fire and support you in doing this very, very critical step that trust me, if left to your own devices, nine outta 10 of you wouldn't do. And then I will also help you create your plan.
You'll walk away knowing what you're creating in terms of the intention, but you'll also make decisions about what fits. You'll create a list of your action items to take care of between now and the end of the year, and a map of your calendar so you know what goes where. It will feel so good. It always does, and I've had women join me year after year because it's so helpful to have this dedicated time to plan.
So even if you've attended before, please come join me again. I'm doing it. I need to do this every year. And I'm guessing you do too. You can tell yourself, like I said, that you will do this on your own, but the truth is it's really hard to carve out the time and stick to it. Something always comes up.
There's always another thing to worry about or to do, or you get distracted or it just doesn't feel as important as whatever is right in front of you. Banging on the door, sending you a text message, trying to get 📍 your attention . Signing up for the workshop is that external accountability. You have some skin in the game to actually set this time aside and use it for this exact purpose.
Plus it's so much more fun to do it in community. Can we just agree that these kinds of things are so much more fun when we're doing them with others? I have actually had women in the past get together as a group in real life and join from their phones or laptops sitting around the table. Now it is on a workday.
So I don't know what's gonna be feasible for you, but maybe you have some coworkers and you wanna all grab a conference room and do this together. It's so much more fun that way. And the ideas that I always walk away with each year from the group chat in the workshop the ideas are so good.
You're planning your season alongside other working moms who are right there with you. They get it. They will help remind you of things that you have forgotten about. You can ask questions and brainstorm and hear how other people are making decisions or doing things. When I say that 90 minutes will save you hours and hours of time and headache, I truly mean that having those decisions and a plan mapped out in advance is the best thing you can do for your family, for your calendar, for your to-do list, and for yourself to give you an experience maybe that you've not had so far.
Which is one where you can actually enjoy and feel prepared and organized heading into this season. All right. Again, it's happening on November 6th, so go ahead and mark your calendar, and if you want to go ahead and secure your ticket, which I strongly encourage you to do, I can't wait to see your name come through my inbox as having saved your spot.
You can do that on my website at themothernurture.com/holiday
Holiday planning starts now. It's never too early. It will feel so good to have this in place. Get your ticket, save the date, and join me on November 6th, and I'll help you take care of all the rest. All right, until the next episode. I will talk with you soon.
Take care.
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