Ready or not, Christmas is almost here. And according to the traditional telling of the story, we will find out whether we have been naughty or nice.

Photo Credit: Public Domain via Pixabay

Sooner or later though, we discover Santa doesn’t really care whether we have been naughty or nice. Or if he does, his method of tracking it is severely flawed. Naughty or nice, the presents always come.

But naughty or nice does matter. Not to Santa, but to your future. And the irony is, it is preparing for Christmas that often crosses the line.

Have you been naughty or nice to your body?

Running around and trying to make Christmas perfect can be really stressful. Did you remember that it is more important to enjoy this holiday than to get it perfect? Chill out already. Sit back, have an egg-nog, and look forward to the beauty of this holiday.

If getting it perfect becomes such a big deal, it becomes a season of loathing, not celebration. Remember that it is about telling stories, remembering Jesus, family, and fun together.

Have you been naughty or nice to your wallet?

This one should be easy for me, because after all, I am the grinch that stole Christmas. Okay, so maybe not. I do get into the spirit of cheer, just not so much the spirit of gifts. Blame it on having other priorities, or me being selfish, or me being wise. I don’t really care. Pick one! (HoHoHo… I hope you choose seeing me as wise… HoHoHo)

But even then, with a resolution that this Holiday wasn’t worth blowing my finances up over, I have to admit; It is easy to overspend. And overspending on Christmas is naughty. Even if you do it to be the cool guy. You will reap those coals in your stocking well into the New Year.

Have you been naughty or nice to others?

Have you taken the time to reach out? When Christmas becomes such a big deal, sometimes we forget the importance of others. Do we just give gifts to those we will most likely receive gifts from? Or did we remember in celebrating Jesus’ birth, that Jesus taught us to go out into the highways and byways and invite the less fortunate into this season too.

I know I could have done more. But one of the things I like to do is to take some others out for a coffee. People that have no reason to give me anything in return. So my coffee times get filled up around Christmas with people outside my family. College students and friends that could use some more cheer. I guess my thing is more about time than it is about gifts. If you know me, that will be obvious to you.

And finally, have you been naughty or nice to your future?

I don’t really believe in New Years resolutions. But I do believe in setting goals and action plans in place for doing life on purpose. And we often think about how we want our life to be better next year than this year was. But it is also easy to ignore all that for this Christmas, and promise ourselves we’ll start after Christmas.

But just remembering that now, and starting to make a few choices with your future in mind now during the holidays, will set you up for a better year. Why? Because follow-through on goals will only happen if we are serious about our goals. And starting to sacrifice even a little bit for our goals today, even before they are fully laid, starts building the foundation for them in our minds.

Just be nice to yourself and your future already, would you?

And because of that, you will tend to create more effective goals, once you set them. But remember, set only a few goals, and create clearly measurable action steps to them. And don’t forget to envision how achieving those goals will change your life.

One thing is certain. Just because you want it all, doesn’t mean you can have it all. Life just doesn’t work that way.