Make Your December More — By Making It Less (Productive Flourishing Pulse #461)

Take time to reflect, be present, and anticipate

Photo by Hadija on Unsplash

As we’ve been talking as a team about December, it’s been interesting to see some trends or themes emerge. You’ve been hearing me and the team beat the drum about things like:

1. Less presents, more presence

2. Fewer overall projects, more focus on the few that are most important

3. Less catching up on work, more catching up on rest

At its core — when you get past the rampant consumerism of the holidays — December is less about “adding new” and more about reflecting on what was, being present to what is, and anticipating what’s to come.

I’m going to keep today’s Pulse shorter and share some links on those themes:

1. Reflecting on what was: You Are Not Your Past is a great place to start. If you want to go deeper on this one, the Annual Reflection Mini-Guide (see below 👇) can help.

2. Being present to what is: 12 Simple Ways to Be Present is directly about presence, as is Pulse #457: Holiday Presents/Presence.

3. Anticipating what’s to come: Maghan’s Making Progress Towards your Goals & Dreams Quarter by Quarter is helpful to start shaping the year. A quarter is long enough that it can hold some substantial projects, but not so long that it gets away from us.

So many of the resources we share — from the Annual Reflection Mini-Guide, to the Momentum Planning E-Course, to even the Action Item Catcher and Productivity Jumpstarter — are designed to help with all three of the above. I’m excited that we get to roll out even more resources next year.

Other News & Features

• We all have that person who’s insanely difficult to buy for, whether they just have all the stuff already, or don’t like to have much stuff at all. Instead of another “thing,” why not invest in their growth and thriving — with a gift subscription to Productive Flourishing? Awesome for them, easy for you.

• Start your year off strong by locking in your quarterly objectives and creating a plan to achieve them. And if support and accountability would help with that, we’ve scheduled our first of four Quarterly Planning sessions for 2024. Upgrade your subscription to Pro and join us January 24, 2024, 11am PST.

• Because of the Quarterly Planning session, there will be no Monthly Community Coaching Call in January. We’ll reconvene the MC3 on Wednesday, February 21, 11am PST.

Reads and Seeds

I'm pausing Reads and Seeds for a couple weeks, since I’m taking some time off for the holidays (eating my own cooking). I’ll be back with new recommendations in the new year.