Busy mums – how to have Christmas confidence
Christmas is a time which can be very testing for busy mums and dads. There is even more to do than usual on top of which there are the additional financial pressures that Christmas brings. And you may suddenly find that your Christmas confidence has deserted you.
There are the Christmas parties, which may put pressure on your current wardrobe and expertise in small talk.
Lack of clothes, or confidence in the clothes you have got. This may result in a last minute emergency dress shopping trip, squashed between Christmas shopping and wrapping presents, which is hardly ideal.
And of course having met all your Christmas deadlines all you now have to do is cook a fantastic Christmas lunch for all the family.
Having a lot of stuff on your plate can mean that you slip into fire fighting mode and deal with each item as the deadline approaches.
This in itself can be very stressful, and can ebb away at your confidence and in the worst case leave you feeling stressed and a bit of a failure.
Christmas Confidence and self belief
Being confident and having a strong self belief in your own ability will have a direct impact on your moods, your energy levels and actually your happiness. The thing is most of the time we put these pressures on ourselves. The trick is to do your best – and not compare yourself to others.
Your confidence and self belief will equal you being happy. And remember your happiness will have a direct impact on your family. which is why having self belief and confidence in yourself is so important for your well-being and those around you especially at Christmas.
Christmas confidence requires you to plan, plan and plan
There is never a more important time of the year to think ahead. This means planning, and writing down your all your plans. Plans in the head do not count. Writing down your plans as a To do List will give you clarity, and help you focus on the details of what you need to do – not just a fluffy big picture.
The thing to remember the devil is the detail. A planning exercise in which you walk yourself through what you will need to do, will highlight possible hiccups or things you may otherwise have overlooked.
Action plans – refer and review often
I suggest writing plans down in a notebook or on your PC. It has to be somewhere where these written plans will not go astray and that that you can easily refer to easily and amend if necessary. They should include:
What you will be wearing
- What you will be wearing at any social events you will be attending. Write down what you plan to wear after you have had a rummage around in your wardrobe and you have tried the outfit on. Have you got the right shoes, tights and the correct underwear for the out fit. Can this be dressed with different accessories, or be worn to another event. Hang the items together in preparation. Is it all clean?
What you will be eating
- Write down what you plan to eat over the Christmas holidays and create a rough menu plan. Scheduling this exercise in your diary is also a good thing to do. Ideally use a notebook or something which is unlikely to astray. Consult recipe books and your store cupboard as you do this.
- Have some back- up store cupboard recipes up your sleeve. Pasta, sauces, cheese are all good basic standbys.
- Grab your cookery book and work out timings for meals. This is what professional chefs do. Start with the time you plan to serve the meal, allow time for carving, resting as well as cooking. Make sure you have your ” menu planning list”available to refer to as you cook Christmas Dinner or any special meal where you feel you may get distracted. Remember to also include things like laying the table.
Shop online or buy in advance
Try to shop online for your Christmas shop but if that is not possible, identify all the items you can buy in readiness for Christmas which are not date driven and do not need to be fresh. Shop for these as soon as possible.
Schedule everything in your diary
Most people only schedule events in their diaries not necessarily actions they need to take. The thing is actions take time – so it is important to schedule time for the things you need to do.
For example wrapping Christmas presents, or even sorting out your Christmas wardrobe. These and other things take up time but aren’t what you could describe as events and quite often we don’t allow ourselves times to do this.
The end result is that we may not be able to find what we want to wear. Instead we end up spending our time rummaging around in our wardrobe which may result in us going out lacking in Christmas Confidence.
Planning is one of the essential components to helping you have Christmas Confidence.
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