The Lazy Genius Podcast - #88 - Refocus Your Christmas Brain

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

A gentle, loving reminder that you matter this Christmas season. . .even if you feel overwhelmed and those family traditions you care so much about fall apart. Helpful Companion Links Want to get a jump start on the new year? Listen to The Lazy Genius Sets Goals OR read How to Set Goals Like a Normal Person (or do both) Looking for a bit of rest even though your kids will be home from school for two weeks soon?! Listen to The Lazy Genius Creates a Holiday Sabbath There won’t be a new episode next Monday, Christmas Eve, but you can find me all the time on Instagram @thelazygenius Download a transcript of this episode This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi everybody. Merry Christmas. This is the lazy genius podcast. I'm Kendra and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 88. Refocus your Christmas brain. Let's make this super quick because we have presents to wrap and grandma's to visit. I want to quickly and lovingly remind you that you are valuable if these next few days are perfect and also if they are crap. If you buy the perfect gift or you can't seem to make anybody happy with what you buy, you matter. If your Christmas breakfast makes everyone like moan in happiness or if you pull out hockey puck cinnamon rolls from the oven, you matter. If you have amazing conversations with your family or you end up yelling at your kids to be more grateful or you'll take away all their presents, you matter. We're all in process of becoming deeper and truer and who we already are. So remember that your value isn't based on successful meals or traditions or kids who are perfectly

thankful and content with what they have. And yet we also can all become that deeper, truer version of ourselves by shifting our perspective a little bit. So this week, recognize that how you respond, it doesn't necessarily make you a good or bad person, but it can encourage you in a purposeful direction of becoming a person. more contented you. So this week, as the season continues, an actual Christmas day approaches very soon. I just hope that you slow down, that you seek connection rather than protection,

that you give yourself space when you feel the volcano signaling an eruption, and that you have grace for yourself when that emotional lava, it just spews everywhere, all over everybody. None of your decisions are going to make or break anything necessarily. but each one can be a tiny building block on the other in you becoming a deeper, true version of who you are and be more contented with who that is. So just relax, just relax, seek to connect, not to protect. And also, just remember that the more that we try and capture, manufacture, and reproduce and quantify our connections and our memories,

the more we're likely to actually miss out on what we're trying to capture. I'm not saying don't take photos. This isn't about your photos because clearly we're going to take photos. I mean mentally, don't get obsessed with like creating an essence that simply like it just wants to exist. Like it already exists in your living rooms around your trees in your own soul. Just be in love and eat and see your people. be extravagantly wasteful with your time and graciously generous with who you are.

Because who you are, who you are, not what you do is a gift. So I just want to leave you with that as we go into Christmas because I love you so much. I hope you have a beautiful holiday season. We're going to take next week off since Monday's Christmas Eve. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things I don't. And I truly am so, so grateful for you. And I'll see you next time. Merry Christmas. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life,

you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.