Using Red and Green as Guides for a Balanced Life

With our holiday season ahead, I hope wonderful get-togethers are ahead for you and your loved ones. Hopefully, you can enjoy some of the hustle and bustle of this year’s holiday season without getting all stressed out. Hopefully, you can enjoy shopping, mailing packages to loved ones, attending holiday parties, maybe hosting one. It’s what makes the holiday season what it is. Yes?

As you are enjoying all your holiday get-togethers, you may start thinking: What comes after the holidays? What’s on the horizon for me next year? Should I explore a new career? Take a relationship to the next level? Take some self-development courses? Maybe launch a little business of your own on the side? Or the most famous New Year’s Resolution of all, Lose Weight! All kinds of choices you get to make soon!

Whatever you do, consider this simple formula to avoid overdoing yourself in your new effort. Think of using the colors of the holiday season to create balance in your new year: Green for your *giving* activities and red for the *receiving* activities in your life. 

Are you are wondering: Should I focus on first?  If you are, think of the Christmas poinsettia as a guide.  Its first color is Green! So, think, first, of what to you can give before thinking about what you want to receive.

Or, you may prefer to follow one of Stephen Covey’s habit of highly effective people, Begin with the End in Mind. For example, ‘To receive a paycheck, I’ll need to – first – give my skills in the form of service to my employer and its customers’ or ‘To receive love, I should start by giving love’ which matches ‘To have a friend, first, be one.’

In all these situations, remember that, by giving, you will receive – at a minimum – that heartwarming feeling anyone receives from any \’giving’ effort.

If you are thinking, ‘Heck, I give way more than I receive’, ask yourself: When you are ‘giving\’, what are some of the ‘reds’ that you are receiving from your giving efforts that you may not notice easily? How about simply feeling grateful you have a job vs not not feeling grateful that you have one? And appreciating those crazy friends of yours at work that make your job a joy vs a boring job.

If you are a stay-at-home parent, think of all the countless, priceless heart-warming, precious moments of parenting. For entrepreneurs, there’s the working ‘half-days’ (12 hrs a day) that will, hopefully, generate far more income over time than continually going to that same old job day after day, decade after decade.

And, as we all know, with any kind of work comes the need to rest and re-energize. So, for that, I recommend you consider one of Mother Teresa’s words of wisdom, “Work, Rest, and PRAY” or Dr. Jack Groppel, well-known sports physician, who suggests: “Work, Rest, and PLAY!”

In closing, stop and think about your life now and ask yourself: “What are the green *giving opportunities* in my life and what are some hidden *red rewards* I may enjoy from them?” When you are helping someone, remember the quote: \”Many people spell \’love\’:  T I M E.

In closing, as you celebrate with family and friends this upcoming weekend and begin the new year, look for ways to give by simply ‘thinking of all’ whenever you make a choice and let the rich red receiving moments rain upon you. Best wishes for creating a happy and balanced Happy New Year! May it be your best year ever!