I know this is supposed to be the most joyful season of the year, but wherever I go I hear that it can also be the most challenging. The perfect holiday may be elusive to many. There is a constant pressure around what you’re “supposed to be” doing.

Rather than obsessing about what you’re supposed to be doing, think about how you’d like to take advantage of this time of year. If your phones are slow, use the time to…

• Learn that new computer program you recently installed.
• Create a new marketing proposal or client presentation to impress your prospects.
• Research your market. (One client finds this excess of time an opportunity to explore which trade shows to enter the next year. Another used the peaceful quiet to research artists’ grants while her neighbors are all at the mall.)
• Join me for the last Remarkable Women’s Network event of 2012 (and the last one in Connecticut), where you will “Come As You’ll Be five years from now.
• Do Nothing! (See below for tips on how to do nothing.)

One assignment I had during my coaching certification program a few years ago was to sit for one hour and do nothing. I chose to bring my collapsible chair to Compo Beach on Long Island Sound for this hour of nothingness.

Within a few minutes of disorientation—how does one do nothing? I began to observe what was going on in the nothingness of sitting. I started watching the gulls. One would swoop down, pick up a clamshell in its beak, fly up, and drop it to the ground. When it broke open, the bird would swallow the contents—mission accomplished. I noticed that the activity would be repeated two or three times if the shell wasn’t immediately compliant. The bird simply swooped down again, retrieved the same shell, flew up, and dropped it again. After a couple of tries without success, it moved on to another shell. It was a force of nature.

The outcome of that assignment for me was connecting with nature, giving my mind a healthy distraction, and not having any responsibility for what was happening in front of me. I left the beach with a renewed sense of energy and optimism.

What about the current season does work for you? What can be accomplished when the phones are quiet? You can cross off some important items from your To-Do List or you can do nothing. Both can be equally rewarding.

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