After The Holidays

 I have been hearing this sentence a lot lately: "After the holidays". Meaning, "In the new year." Right, like 10 days from now. It's almost like the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day doesn't exist. No one wants to take care of things until after New Year's Day. Well, then what exactly are you doing between Christmas and New Year's? "End of the year stuff." is usually the answer. 

That part I get. We all have goals of things to do before the new year. We have things due by January 1st. Some of it is a set do-by date. Other things are personal goals to complete by that date. We have bills to pay, deals to finalize, new year's parties to plan, plans to finalize. It's the week for bills and planning. Mostly, it seems to be an excuse to push things off a week. 

In some cases, there is a good reason for that. If you have a school aged kid, they are home that week. They need to be entertained. So, time is spent on childcare that is normally spend on taking care of business. Maybe that is the week for your kids to go to the doctor and your medical stuff can wait a week. 

What about the stuff you do have time for in that week but don't bother doing? Why is that the procrastination week instead of a different week? What is it that you are actually doing throughout the week really? In a lot of ways, it's a last attempt to get something good from a bad year or to squeeze in one more good thing because you don't know what kind of year the next year will be. The anxiousness over the unknowns about the upcoming year. We all probably treat ourselves in one small or big way to something enjoyable at some point that week. 

What are you "waiting until after the holidays" for? Why are you waiting? Sometimes the wait is easy. Sometimes it's hard. But there is one constant. every year we all have at least one thing that won't be taken care of until after January 1st.