Small Victories

Let's face it. We all lead chaotic lives. This is especially true when the holidays roll around. We have the daunting tasks of trying to prepare dishes/meals for our families, getting our living spaces ready for company, and trying to get our loved ones gifts. This is on top of the current duties we have in our daily lives. When you get in your bed, you feel exhausted and drained.

Hopefully you don't mind me going into a diatribe about my current stresses in life. But I hope you aren't bored, either. It's not easy trying to make things just right for those you love during the holidays. However, there is something you should consider doing in order to make the holidays less stressful. At least, this is something I've tried that has helped me immensely: Taking the small victories into account.

Every time I've gotten one of the gifts I've needed or I've prepared my space for company, I feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that I've gotten a little inconvenience out of the way. Usually, if you try to tackle every task at once, it will end up in a messy result. The idea of taking baby steps towards a goal is essential in life and is especially applicable here. Once you've completed all the small tasks put in front of you, you can relax and enjoy your time with the ones you love.

This doesn't just have to apply to the holidays; this can be geared towards general life. If you're a student and you have a big project to do, you'd want to tackle a portion of it instead of trying to take the project on full bore. If you have a presentation for work, you'd plot out what you'd do first before starting to construct your presentation.

Speaking of plotting out, this goes back to one central idea: Planning. I'm close to graduating college and I have an idea of what I want to do once I graduate. I'd like to take myself to a warmer climate and start my life anew, but I need a plan! I can't just do everything at one time, though. I need to take baby steps and celebrate the small victories in making that plan happen. All of these small victories will eventually accumulate to a grander victory.

Think of this as making a rough draft, only for your life instead of a paper or a book. You want to plot the best course of action in tackling the daily tasks in your life. As the old saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day."