The year-end madness is officially on us. The lovely time of year when we are all supposed to be spreading holiday cheer. The reality is that I judge most everyone is verging on overload and just barely able to keep it together and not flip their lids. Perhaps it is just me, but my hunch is that others would agree if they really took the time to honestly get in touch with their own level of stress or anxiety in the run up to the New Year.
My goal with this post is not to be a bah-humbug Grinch, as I do love the holidays, really. I simply want to share my reality and I’m curious if anyone else shares it with me. Gimbal Systems is interested in finding and maintaining unlimited degrees of freedom and right now that is a stretch. All you have to do is watch the joyous news. Starting with Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, where there were stampedes and riots over access to certain items in the 5AM sales. The “crazy season” as my mother likes to call it is here once again.
There are plenty examples of stress overload out there. So what contributes to it I ask myself this year? First off, there are all the things that get added to life at work. The passing of another year and the inevitable questions of did I succeed at the goals I set for myself or others set for me? Can I still make them if I press really hard? I remember the mad dash in my sales career to close the final year-end deals, driven to capture unspent budget dollars in the use it or lose it mentality of corporate planning. Will I make president’s club was another added year-end sales pressure?
In my management days there was the year-end budgeting and planning cycle, the employee review process that had forced distribution curves, calibration meetings and the dilemma of how to distribute bonuses, if there were any, in a way try to keep everyone thrilled to come back next year and do it all over again. There were also the holiday parties at work in the name of team building and giving thanks for all the hard work and sacrifice during the year. Throw in a little further situational stress like, will I or my team still have a job next year and you get the drift. The result is the plate gets pretty full on the work front this time of year, especially when you consider there is still the basic job that needs to get done just as it did for the previous eleven months of the year.
Secondly there are the additional pressures at home. The kids, if you have them, gradually amp up over the holidays while they are out of school and express daily what they want from you. Extended family comes and goes or you go to them, which adds it’s own stress. There is the mixing of family traditions that may or may not fit, the holiday cards that need to get out, the decorations for the parties to host and gifts for the ones you go to. It goes on and on all the while money seems to vanish, time is precious and everyone is maxed out. Throw in a little grieving perhaps of people missing in your lives at this natural time of reflection and memories and the personal front is as loaded as the professional side.
When you put the two together for yourself and everyone else around you, you get to a boiling point quickly. For me it happened recently when I found myself in the car at the mall trying to sneak in a quick business lunch meeting followed by targeted shopping (I know exactly what I want and where I will get it). Easy, right? Wrong, because my expectations are clearly out of synch with reality that started with no parking and four near accidents because people have become race car drivers fighting for an open spot three lanes away. The result is that I’m late for lunch and wondering why I chose to meet here today. I recover barely over lunch and then I’m knocked off again after lunch when my targeted shopping is not as successful as I hoped and precious time is lost.
The result is that I ended up flipping my lid, screaming to myself in the car on my way out, as I was cut off once again, in utter frustration over the whole experience. In that moment I had successfully become one of the crazy people my mother tells me to look out for at this time of year. My gimbals locked and I lost my degrees of freedom. I admit it and I’m more human for it. I have a greater sense of empathy for myself and others I see being crazy now because I took the time to reflect and write about it. Will it happen again? Maybe, but at least I’m more aware of what triggers it for me at this time of year, which is the first step to changing the behavior.
What about you? Am I alone in this experience or is anyone with me? Let me know.
Happy Holidays!! May the force be with you and your gimbals hold you steady.