CHRISTMAS Christmas angeland the other holidays can be a crazy time of year.  Retail, especially, can go nuts.  But there’s others, like what’s happening with health care insurance right now.

Just crazy.

But I’ve found that this can be an enjoyable kind of busy-ness, because:

  1. You’re accomplishing a whole lot in a short period of time, and
  2. You know that it’s a short term situation.

Over the course of my career, I’ve had the chance to be pressured by intense deadlines.  There’s nothing like the experience of working on a project for two years, then finally getting to the point where you’re SO CLOSE (yet so far) and customers are breathing down your neck.

Some people find that kind of stress exhilarating.  I tend to be drained by it, and I get through it by taking the Big Picture point of view.  We’re doing something valuable, and it’ll come to an end soon.

You DO have to watch out about building an expectation that “coming to an end soon” doesn’t get interpreted as “life will be comfortable.”  No, there will be another set of challenges coming just around the corner.  You might get a few moments to celebrate this accomplishment, but then it’s time to buckle down and focus on the next one.

That’s why it’s important to focus on the Big Picture.  For you personally, and for your company.  Maintain that energy on what’s most important, and try to relate what you’re doing to that sense of purpose and value.

In that light, I hope you have the chance to take Christmas off, or to otherwise focus on more important non-business things.  Appreciate those beloved souls around you, the ones who make life worth living.  Contribute to making a better society in every little conversation you have.

Then we’ll buckle down for 2014.