Just the other day, I was on the phone with a client who was telling me how dead-tired he was, and that he was really looking forward to collapsing on the beach over the holidays. I noted that I was pretty exhausted, too. But then a colleague of his joined us on the call and asked us how we were, and we both chorused, “Great!” Fortunately, he called us on it (he’s a funny, no BS kind of guy). “Oh, wonderful,” he said, “Now I’ve got be great, too, I suppose.” We both laughed, and I said, “Actually, we were both just commiserating with each other about how weary we are.”
I think a lot of what makes the holidays difficult for people when they’re not – for whatever reason - feeling very merry, is that they feel compelled to pretend that they are. You don’t have to be awful to people (see bad habit #3), but you don’t have to do a Santa impersonation, either. You can just feel whatever you feel. When I’ve had less-than-stellar holiday seasons, I’ve found that being honest with myself about what I’m experiencing makes it more likely that I can at some point actually be touched and cheered by the holiday spirit.