Most of us wonder how to handle the holidays every year. This year is extra special because of COVID-19. My coaching clients started expressing concerns about the holidays around mid-September. I’m used to the annual holiday concerns, but this felt a little different.

In March 2020 when the world began to respond to the crisis of a pandemic, we were all so thrown that we didn’t have time to think about the social/emotional impact of not being able to have regular social interactions, hugs from friends, in-person school for some, or not being able to see your family members.

How many times do you tell yourself you’re bad at something? Or you can’t do something? How often do you say crappy things to yourself like how stupid you are or how you’re definitely going to fail? I truly hope your answer is rarely or never.

How many unrealistic plans and expectations do you have? Not sure? Then ask yourself how often you feel like you don’t hit the mark when you do things. If the answer is “a lot”, then you probably have a lot of unrealistic plans and expectations.

We've all given into our reactivity and lashed out at someone, said something we didn't really mean or didn't mean it the way it came out. Sometimes we take it even further and are cruel to another person, we bully and exert power over them.

There are some words and phrases that are no-no's when you work with me. A few of those are "I don’t know", "I can't help it", and “I’m just lazy”. They all assume that there are no reasons for the things we do and no way to change.