Making December Suck Less
What? December already?
Indeed. Tomorrow begins the treacherous final month of the year. It’s when we somehow eat a dozen cookies at a time…after the third slice of red velvet cake. It’s when we buy that second pair of furry boots because we’re on the internet and already have our credit card out. Those who must spend the holidays with their families get depressed. Those who have no families to spend the holidays with get depressed. The best strategy seems to be to retreat onto the couch, snuggle with the 1750 ml bottle of Captain Morgan, and wait for the new year to start.
Then I’ll get my sh*t together, you say.
Noooooo! Come baaaaaaaaaaaack!
It’s true that December is traditionally the crappiest month of the year. The combo of cold + darkness + mandatory holiday cheer is agreeable only to Santa’s elves and Swedes. The elves are happy for the overtime, and the Swedes are happy everyone else is finally as miserable as them. Regular people, on the other hand, tend to melt into sad little puddles of half frozen pond scum.
But, as financial advisors like to say, past performance is not an indicator of future results. This December need not be another year of succumbing to scum. It can be a really good, solid month. Really! While December may never be as awesome as Han Solo, it need not be forever Jar Jar Binks.
To help, here are QF’s five to-dos for busting through December like the champ you are:
Make December month zero of 2013. When our coach wasn’t watching, we used to see who could dive the furthest down the pool with a running start. Whoever could get up the most speed on the pool deck usually won. Sure, every once in a while someone would wipe out on the slippery concrete and destroy their ACL, but hey. It was fun to see how much further you could get with a running start compared to the usual static start from the starting blocks. December 2012 is a 31-day running head start into 2013. Read more…