The Short List

Every year around this time, we feel the same shift: the calendar speeds up, invitations and expectations come from every direction, and suddenly the next six weeks feel like a test of how many competing priorities a person can juggle at once.

It’s the perfect time of year to invoke the metaphor of glass balls versus rubber balls when determining your priorities.

Some responsibilities will shatter if dropped, but others will bounce.

That idea holds up always. But the holiday season adds its own twist.

Because during the holidays, we’re not just managing our normal plate of responsibilities. We’re managing a higher level of expectations from both ourselves and others.

Kids’ hopes. Extended family traditions. Social pressure (looking at you, Elf On The Shelf friends). Financial pressure. Internal pressure to make things meaningful, magical, and memorable.

And those weighty expectations make each ball feel like “glass.” It’s so important, we can’t drop it!

In effect, we end up pressure cooking ourselves as much as next week’s potatoes.

But every “priority” on the November and December list can’t be on the top. Not in real life, with limited time, limited energy, and limited money.

Rather than trying to carry every glass ball from now through New Year’s, this is the moment to choose something different for the season ahead.

Pick your short list.

If not one thing, then the highest priority handful of things—two, three, maybe four—that will govern the decisions you make over the next six weeks.

This short list becomes your season’s mission and internal compass. It’s your check-point for saying yes, for saying no, and for staying on course with your bigger picture values and goals.

Maybe your list looks like:

• Carefully protecting your health and sleep to avoid crashing by the end of the season.

• Keeping a preset holiday budget intact no matter the short-term sacrifice.

• Prioritizing simple time with family over performing holiday perfection.

• Leaning into experiences instead of physical gifts under the tree.

• Skipping the big meal and serving others in need.

For me and our family this year, I’m leaning more into experiences (seeing A Christmas Carol on stage, participating in church celebrations, going on some light drives) and intentionally dropping much of my/our usual work (homeschool and professional). This pre-decision will keep me from trying to uphold all the usual responsibilities and expectations, in addition to all the holiday expectations that arise.

Whatever your short list is, let it be yours, not a collage of everyone else’s desires and expectations.

And once you choose it, let it guide the way you spend your time, your attention, and especially your money. Because overwhelm is a choice, and stepping away from it requires this kind of mindful intention.