Give your­self the best Christ­mas present

This hol­i­day sea­son, give your­self the best Christ­mas present of all. You owe it to your­self. The gift I have in mind for you is one nobody else can give you. You have to give it to your­self. And it’s free.

The gift I’m talk­ing about is the gift of accep­tance.

Accept that things are OK. Accept that you are OK. Give your­self a break. Let things be.

The hol­i­days can bring a lot of pres­sure. We need to fig­ure out what gifts to get every­one else, fig­ure out how to sched­ule in hol­i­day par­ties, fig­ure out how to get to the kids’ Christ­mas plays, and on top of all that fig­ure out how to keep run­ning and work­ing out so that we can still have a lit­tle bit of eggnog and Christ­mas cook­ies with­out gain­ing too much extra weight.

And yet, with all this hol­i­day crazi­ness going on, I con­tinue to read blog posts and run­ning mag­a­zine arti­cles about how to improve per­for­mance, get faster, avoid injury, eat health­ier, cross-​​train, breathe bet­ter, qual­ify for Boston, run bare­foot, and add inter­vals and tempo runs to my routine.

I no longer have a rou­tine. I have run a total of three times in December.

And that’s OK.

I wrote a post on my other blog about being Too Busy. In that post I pointed out that it’s not a mat­ter of how busy you are, it’s a mat­ter of what your pri­or­i­ties are. And you get to set your priorities.

It’s OK for your pri­or­i­ties to change.

At this time of the year, my run­ning drops down a notch or two on the pri­or­ity list. Long term, it’s still very impor­tant to me. But is it more impor­tant that I get a run in today, or that I wrap gifts for the kids?

I have made con­scious choices about my pri­or­i­ties, and I accept that. I choose to put my fam­ily first. I choose to enjoy the hol­i­days. And I choose not to get stressed about run­ning less.

Run­ning less doesn’t make me any less of a run­ner. This sea­son, run­ning less means that I can be a bet­ter dad.

I accept that, and I’m happy with that.

One you have made your choices and set your pri­or­i­ties, accept them. And be happy with them.

I wish you all hap­pi­ness, health, pros­per­ity, and peace this hol­i­day sea­son and through­out the New Year.

2 Comments

• 
  Tim Wilson December 22, 2010 at 9:35 pm

  I find that this time of year it is harder to get the run­ning in. I still try but I don’t beat myself up about it when I don’t.
  • 
    Evhen December 23, 2010 at 9:26 am

    Yes, I agree, it is much harder this time of year. Sounds like you have the right atti­tude, though. Good luck with your running!