Impulse

Ahh, the hol­i­day sea­son: The air turns crisp. People dash about com­plet­ing their shop­ping. Cheery music plays from every speaker. Deadlines loom; time grows short. Every con­ver­sa­tion begins with a state­ment about how busy you are. Welcome to the mass hys­te­ria that is the hol­i­days. Does any of the fol­low­ing describe you?

• You’ve skipped out of work early or avoided some event using the excuse of “it’s the holidays” — even though you haven’t so much as thought about christ­mas shopping.
• At work, your year-end quo­tas and dead­lines cause you to attempt to do more than a month’s work in just a few weeks.
• Meanwhile, you attempt to fin­ish half a years worth of per­sonal projects in just a few weeks so that you can start the new year afresh.
• In one month, you have more par­ties to attend than in the other eleven combined.
• Last year you said that this year would be dif­fer­ent — no stress; no rush.

I’m afraid I’m guilty on nearly all counts.
Let’s all take a break and per­form a mass rem­edy: grab a cup of your favorite hot bev­er­age, curl up in a big comfy chair, and do absolutely noth­ing for 30 min­utes.
Update: Is this just an American thing? I’d love to hear from all you peo­ple else­where in the world — is this time of year crazily busy?

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