Passions in the Festive Season

Living with passion is a key element in the PATH to true wealth; and it is the first area I discuss in my book. Passion may bring up images of artists immersed in their creative processes, or new lovers strolling in the park holding hands. This indeed is passion.

However, I am speaking about pragmatic passion, where we do things from the heart. Doing more of what we love generates passion in our lives. They are things we do because we want to do them; such as taking care of our family, or indulging in a favourite activity.

The opposite end of this spectrum is fear, where we do things out of obligation, then we are not doing them because we want to do them, we are doing them because we should do them. These socially imposed should dos can take up a lot of our resources and decrease our overall quality of life and wealth. 

This is especially timely to think about during in holiday season, where there are traditions and expectations that can create a lot of stress and detract from the joy of the festive season.

What can you do this season to increase your passion and move from experiencing fear (or stress and overwhelm) to love? Just take out a should do and replace it with a want to do. This sounds very simple, I know. And if you are feeling ambitious, then you can eliminate many should dos and add in multiple want to dos.

For my should dos, I am giving up my self-pressure to send Christmas cards. I actually love this tradition, and would compile a large mailing list and mail friends and family cards every year. It made me feel ‘on top of things.’ But as our life became more complex, so did this task; the post got more expensive (about £120) and it became more time consuming (two long evenings). In addition, now we have social media as a replacement for posting cards.

As for what I want to do this Christmas to make it a little more special, I have given this some thought, and I have decided to add in baking cookies. Cookies? Yes, it is a small thing I know.

I got the idea when I saw some delicious cookies in a downtown shop the other day for £6 each. I thought: I could make cookies like that! I can make two dozen for about £20 worth of ingredients. In an afternoon, I can joyfully bake the equivalent of £288 of those cookies. 

I remember my parents baking cookies every holiday season and then giving them out to friends and guests during the Christmas time ‘visiting’ ritual we had in our small town. I also have fond memories of baking cookies with my daughter when she was younger. So, this is the ritual I plan to bring back into our Christmas this year.

Now your turn: what should dos would you like to eliminate this Christmas? What want to dos would you like to replace them with to make this festive season memorable?

Disclaimer: This article if for educational purposes only and is not personal financial advice.