How are you?
I wanted to talk to you about your Mojo.
If you are a mum, this is the ‘eyes down, look in, hold tight’…freefall towards Christmas.
(incidentally – that bloody song was blasting out in WHSmith yesterday. No Slade, it is not CHRIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAAS yet. Unimpressed.)
I don’t want to make things any worse, but if you are anything like me – this is the sort of schedule you are facing for the next month or so.
Ahem.
Christmas presents from everyone, to everyone else (you know what that means), braving the mental shopping crowds, thirty or so cards to people you don’t see from one year to the next written, licked and posted, Cake (that will be barely eaten as everyone has gorged themselves on everything else) made, then fed at inconveniently regular intervals, same with pudding (n.b. no one actually likes pudding), (PRESSURE BUILDING) advent calendars bought and guarded from pre-December break-ins, decorations dug out of the loft, tree sourced and crammed into car, out of car, into house and subsequent 3 hours of trying to make the damned thing stand up straight, tree decorated, sheep/star/Mary/Joseph/alien/wise man/inkeeper costume made,(PRESSURE BUILDING) wrapping – all gorgeous with fancy curly ribbonny things that take much longer than they would seem, house completely fumigated (for at least one judgemental relative), School; carol concert, Christmas Meal, Christmas Fayre, Nativity, Disco, Delia and Nigella giving you a VERY hard time and an enormous list of things you can only find in Waitrose (PRESSURE BUILDING), people dropping in for ‘drinkies’ (more cleaning to pretend it normally looks like that), office party, HIS office party (no spouses. Hello???), new clothes for everyone for ‘THE DAY’, Children’s ‘MAIN’ presents, then STOCKING’ presents, ‘Who is going to Who?’, Turkey (organic/too big for oven/not defrosted) arranged, New Year’s Eve planned (babysitters – £150? Yes, really and they want food and Sky Box Office) given up on(??), Christmas Eve in the kitchen, Christmas Day in the kitchen, Boxing Day clearing up.
This stuff is on top of all the usual stuff – and there isn’t really enough time for that!
Ok, I’ll stop.
Christmas is coming. We can’t stop it, but we can make sure we enjoy it.
(Because actually it is brilliant if approached right)
LET’S FIRE UP YOUR MOJO (QUICK FIX)!
You will require:
- A pen
- A nice shiny white piece of paper
The scientific diagram below is a depiction of the MOJO CONTINUUM.
The thick black line denotes your MOJO (happiness, energy, enthusiasm, excitement).
The woman is obviously YOU. (Even if you are a chap, go with it, pretend it’s the 80s)
So you’ve had a good day, nice weather, some good news, you’ve just finished something that’s taken ages, people are full of compliments and you are riding on a wave of enthusiasm.
In this frame of mind ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
But what goes up….eventually can come crashing down.
You catch a cold, children keep you up all right, an unexpected bill lands, work is boring/bitchy…things look bleak – you crash land into a slump.
How do you, in this frame of mind, find the energy to keep on keeping on?
Here are some techniques from the world of Life Coaching that I genuinely want you to try.
Put aside 20 minutes now, and they will help you ENJOY the coming weeks as you deserve to.
Tip 1
Understand that what you focus on is how you see the World.
If you decide that everything is TOO MUCH, TOO STRESSFUL, and HASSLE – then your brain will find plenty of evidence to support your case
You decide your view of the World and how you react to it.
If you decide that things are EXCITING, MAGICAL, EVER-CHANGING and WONDERFUL your brain will find evidence for that too.
Sounds simplistic, but properly try it – you may feel like you are pretending at first, but pretty soon you will be ‘being’ this new positive person. And you will RADIATE it.
Tip 2 (DO THIS!!!)
Make a ‘Thank You list’
Make a list of EVERY last tiny thing you have to be grateful for; your environment, the people in your life, your achievements, your things – list EVERYTHING, keep going and going until your page is BURSTING. (You will get into this.)
Now
Take your list and read it ALOUD following each ‘thing’ with a THANK YOU and to whom.
e.g. For my wonderful Husband – THANK YOU DAVE, For my wonderful children – THANK YOU Chloe and Henry…and so on, for my latest opportunity – THANK YOU line manager…and so on.
What you are doing here is turning your mind to those areas and people in your life that give you ENERGY and ENTHUSIASM – not those that drain it.
Trust me – this is an exercise WORTH doing, it works every time.
Tip 3
Your Mojo Log.
Taking a little more effort – this one is more preventative than quick-fix.
Get a little notebook and give yourself a week.
During that week, as you complete an activity (phonecall to friend/mother-in-law/Sainsbury’s shop/game of tennis/collecting children from school/filling inexpense form/weigh-in/’family meeting’) note briefly how it made you feel. In one sentence and a MOJO SCORE out of 10. Don’t analyse now and definitely keep it to one sentence.
When you get to the end of the week, look back over your week and find the patterns. Some things will be obvious but you will turn up some surprises.
Now USE this information.
Where you score low – work out how to do something about it. How can you change/amend/improve those things? Can you share the school run. shop online, run with a friend, negotiate flexi-time/go to bed earlier/maybe make the break from those people who don’t bring anything positive to your life? And not feel guilty about it.
Anyway – we have one week left until the Countdown begins.
Do try to ignore Anthea, Delia, Nigella and Beeny. They are fabulous, but in the scheme of things…they aren’t really helping 😉
Have a great week – and please let me know if you have tried these techniques and more importantly: how you got on.
Lots of Love
Tanya @ Wiggle Waggle