Why Are the Dogs Glaring at Me?

Great question! They are taking me to task because I’m mailing out my Christmas cards this week. Now if you’ve been tracking the calendar, it turns out the December holidays in 2024 were about 6 weeks ago.

Fortunately, I figured out I was going to be late in mid-December so I picked a New Year’s greeting, and figured I’d get the cards out the first week in January. You know, for the new year.

Turns out, I’m sending out my cards today. Which, if you enjoy Chinese New Year, is perfect timing. And I DO love Chinese New Year…it’s a 2 week celebration of the upcoming year, with none of the “New Year-New You” pressure in the Western approach.

How should I think about this?

In any given moment we are experiencing positive, negative and neutral input. What we pay attention to tends to grow in both scope and intensity, meaning we will get more detailed information about what we are focusing on, and we will feel more strongly about it as well.

Using the holiday card example, I then have a choice about how to focus on it. Do I go negative and chastise myself for the lateness? Do I head in a positive direction and feel clever about sending cards in line with Chinese New Year? Or do I just send them out in a neutral way, glad that I am getting them out even if they are late. Positive, negative or neutral. All are available to me.

I think I’ll go with positive.

Where are you focusing your attention? How is that working for you? Let me know! I always love to hear from you.

Happy New Year!