Do you celebrate all of the holidays in your house or do you jump straight from Halloween into Christmas?  With retailers rolling out decorations for each holiday earlier every year, it seems like people are feeling like they need to follow suit.  I have a co-worker who has already started putting up her Christmas decorations.  I am a strict weekend of Thanksgiving (or later) Holiday transitioner.  My tree stays up until at least the middle of January and anything that can pass as a winter decoration will stay up even longer.  We do agree on the transition out of Christmas, but it is that transition in that causes a lot of good natured ribbing between the two of us.  My husband, knowing my stance and upon seeing a Christmas ad, attempted to “innocently” ask why our Christmas decorations were not up yet.  He received the death glare and was curtly reminded that we celebrate all of the holidays in our house and the Christmas ones would make their appearance appropriately AFTER we have given thanks.

Where do you fall?  Are you in such a rush to get to the end that you miss out on too much of the stuff that comes in between or do you make sure that you savor it all?  Actually, now that I think about it, that is a good comparison for my co-worker and I.  She is in such a hurry for the end result that she sometimes misses some important stuff on her quest to complete the project.  Where as I try to always take my time so that I can make sure that I have everything covered as accurately as possible.

When we are hurtling through this ride called life, we are already traveling fast.  Don’t make it go any faster.  Slow down.  Smell the roses.  Celebrate the little things life has to offer (as well as all of the holidays that are meaningful for you).  Because when you reach the end, you aren’t going to wish that you did it faster, you are going to wish that you savored the time you had.

The same is true for obtaining our goals.  Don’t be in such a rush to get to the end result that you set yourself up for failure.  Plan it out.  Make sure that you take your time to do it the right way, so that your goal has a chance to be a successful one.