Three Holiday Tips to Kickstart 2023

Happy holidays friends!

Thanks for being part of my community in 2022. I hope you have plenty to feel thankful for over the holidays, appreciating the past year’s silver linings and forming a foundation for a fantastic year ahead.

The holidays are a time for family, festivities, and fun. If you worked your butt off in 2022, it might feel like you need a big break, which is understandable. But, in the words of my buddy Dan Martel, the holidays are “separation season.” Staying focused on your goals, staying disciplined, and keeping up your routines separate you from the pack over the holidays. It sets you up for a momentous start to the new year. However, it doesn’t have to be all pain and gain. You can keep moving towards your goals while taking a break and enjoying the festive season with these quick tips…

Don’t be Hard on the Gas and Hard on the Brakes… you’ll wear out your engine.

Be a responsible driver. As with your automobile, you don’t want to be lead-footed on your body’s gas or brake pedal. Over the holidays, don’t waiver on your routines that got you this far. If you want to have the extra holiday eggnog or go back for seconds at Christmas dinner, go for it, but don’t go hard indulging and forget about your wellness. It’s about balance.

Find Space for Gratitude – you’ll be thankful you did. 

It’s true, you’ve got to recharge to charge forward, and as my good friend and mentor, Josh Dueck, professes, you need to “rec-reate to re-create.” While the holidays are about family and fun, it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of it all. So, from time to time, we can slow down and take stock of all the good around us, including, hopefully, good health and happiness. Reflecting on 2022 with gratitude will ignite your fire for 2023. 

Set Side-Hustle Goals.

We all have big, brave, overarching goals, but don’t forget to set side-hustle goals. The end of the calendar year is an excellent time for goal setting and focusing on the big things you want to achieve in the coming year. But remember, small goals help you achieve your big ones, and the combination is a secret weapon for staying motivated day-in-day-out. 

In terms of fitness, I train for the Wings for Life World Run every year, which helps fund ground-breaking spinal cord injury research (May 7, 2023 – sign up now!), but it’s a 7-day ski-touring trip that keeps me motivated leading up to the holidays. I posted about the same ski trip I went on last December (8 Years After Accident and Embracing the Unknown). This year, I had the good fortune of spending another adventurous seven days in the mountains with incredible friends enjoying humbling mountains and making memories. To say my gratitude bucket was overflowing after spending my nine-year neck-break-iversary in the backcountry would be a massive understatement.

So, what are your side-hustle goals? And how can you leverage small wins to build momentum towards your main objectives for 2023?

Hopefully, these tips will help you get a jump on 2023. Thanks for reading and being part of my community. Happy holidays to you and yours!

With gratitude,

Mike Shaw

Read more wellness tips in a collaborative article with Alexa Duckworth-Briggs by Trish Medalen at Redbull.