As I sit here in an office that's about 99% empty, I don't know how I feel about this week between Christmas and New Year’s.

On the one hand, I love the holidays. “It’s that time of year, when the world falls in love, blah blah blah” … and (more importantly) when I get to engage in radical acts of “self-care.” For example, eating a breakfast burrito in bed, while watching Gilmore Girls reruns on my laptop at 10 a.m., with no one around to judge my vacation vices.

On the other hand, my relationship status with the holidays is “it’s complicated.” Similar to many of you, the holiday season brings up a lot of complex feelings — loneliness, anger, sadness. So, this week can sometimes feel like I’m sitting in the waiting room of a dentist’s office, mentally preparing a monologue of why I haven’t been flossing for the past year:

• “My guinea pig, Alfred, went through a tax audit.”
• “I never learned to read."
• “In addition to cilantro, I’m also allergic to following directions.”

Of course, social media doesn’t help. It’s too easy to scroll through Instagram and Facebook, and feel like you’re failing. You’re not festive enough. Or surrounded by love enough. Or on top of things enough. Or armed with an unimpeachable set of New Year’s Resolutions enough.

Intellectually, we know social media is not reality, right?

For example, I posted this photo on Christmas Eve …

… a positively adorable, picture-perfect snapshot that seemingly communicates how happy, holly, and jolly I am, surrounded by friends and puppies and desserts.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast on Christmas Eve. But this photo doesn’t show you how hard Christmas morning was. I woke up alone. And every silent square inch of my empty house felt like it was caving in on me. I couldn’t breathe. I cried. I felt broken and lost, with most of my life still packed away in boxes, in a storage unit over 200 miles away in Maryland.

Eventually, I pulled it together. I remembered I chose this Christmas, because I bet on myself in the biggest way possible earlier this year. I remembered how full of love my life is. So, I put on Harry Potter. I lit a scented candle. I cleaned my room. And then, later on, I headed to another friend’s house for a warm and joyous Christmas feast with her family.

As I looked in the mirror before I left for Christmas dinner, reflecting on the day, I realized those moments when I break are similar to the ominous storms that roll up the Chesapeake Bay with ferocious speed.

Storms feel like they will never end, but they always do.

You will see blue skies again, because they never left you.

They were always there, above the clouds.

Each of you reading this has weathered your fair share of storms over the past 12 months, including (more than likely) over the past two weeks. So, before you evaluate how you want to approach the starting line facing us all on January 1, 2024, take a moment to celebrate you. Yes, YOU.

Celebrate your storms. Celebrate how far you’ve come. Celebrate how many things you did this year that December 2022 you would have never believed possible. Celebrate the lessons you learned. Celebrate the “failures” that turned out to be blessings or opportunities for growth.

Celebrate the times you were courageous enough to ask for help. Celebrate the mornings you got up and faced the day, even when it felt impossible. Celebrate the days you allowed yourself to rest, because you deserved it. Celebrate the big and small ways you bet on yourself this year, no matter what anyone else said.

I guarantee you, there is no photo you could take or Instagram filter you could use that would adequately capture every dimension of how worthy you are right now of being celebrated.

🔥 Listen to These Episodes

Unwrapping Holiday Fatigue, New Year's Blues, + Seasonal Funk

What is it about this time of year that creates so much artificial pressure to be joyous and goal-oriented? How much of this pressure is external? How much of it do we create for ourselves? Is there a wrong way to feel this time of year?

How to Process Angers of Your Past to Step Into Your Destiny

Anger, like fear, is a tricky emotion. It's necessary. It's unavoidable. It can be directive. It can also be destructive, depending on how much we let it control our decision-making and rule our lives.

Cultivating a Home Within to Create the Home We Seek Without

The idea of "home" is different for each of us. But how do we define home? What are the mindsets and ideas one can embrace to create that sense of belonging that we crave, as humans, so deeply?

🌟 Inspiring Resources

• How to Feel at Home Anywhere (Laura Gallaher)
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• Let's Talk About Self-Victimization (Mel Robbins)

• Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset (John Spencer)

🗣️ What Smart Folks Have to Say

“I am always doing what I cannot do yet. In order to learn how to do it.”
— Vincent Van Gogh

“I am not a victim. No matter what I have been through, I'm still here. I have a history of victory.” ― Steve Maraboli

"Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations." — Earl Nightingale 

🏆 Your Challenge from George

Who can you become in 365 days (8,760 hours), (525,600 minutes) or (31.536.000 seconds)? I can't wait to see!