Curing the Holiday Hangover
John O’Leary writes in his blog about a phenomenon we have all experienced: “All the build up, excitement, planning, time away from work, family gathered, gifts exchanged… is now over. All the preparation, cooking, eating, opening of presents, racing to parties, watching the clock strike midnight, and flipping the calendar has left you in debt, tired, and a little down. And now you're heading back to work, to school, to real life. So how do we cure this kind of hangover?” Has the race of the Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day holiday created these kinds of feelings in you and yours? What can we do about the holiday hangover?
Please tune in this week as Wayne relates hard earned wisdom shared by O'Leary’s 94-year-old grandmother. She has a prescription that will help cure the holiday hangover - as well as add meaning and value to the rest of your days as a “hurry up! Go, go, go” contractor. Wayne also recounts a terrific daily grounding and appreciation exercise first propounded by the great Earl Nightingale. What's your secret? How do you avoid the holiday hangover as well as keep your balance in the ever-demanding world of construction? Please share your thoughts with us at [email protected].
The first Contractor Business Boot Camp class of 2026 starts in February in Dallas, TX. Invest in your rising leaders by enrolling them to this one-of-a-kind career development program where they will learn how to work ON the business rather than IN the business. Contact Charlotte at [email protected] to find out more.
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WAYNE RIVERS: Hello, everyone. This is Wayne Rivers at Performance Construction Advisors, where We Build Better Contractors.
This week, I want to talk about curing the holiday hangover. Before I do, don't forget about Boot Camp in 2026. Dallas Boot Camp is on February 25, 2026. So contact Charlotte and get your high potential folks signed up for that. We also have Salt Lake City coming up next year, Charlotte, and then Dallas again later in the year.
Curing the holiday hangover. This comes from a blog by John O'Leary via Arlin, of course. He starts off his article with, "Have you ever had a hangover?" Well, some of us have. Some of us have occasionally had a hangover. But he says, "No, I'm referring to the holiday hangover. All the buildup, excitement, planning, time away from work, family gathering, gifts exchanged. It's now over. All the preparation, cooking, eating, opening of presents, racing to parties, watching the clock strike midnight and flipping the calendar has left you in debt, tired, and a little down. And now, you're heading back to work, to school, to real life. How do we cure this kind of hangover?"
That is a great question. I know, not so much, my wife in particular, ramps up for holidays and then is left feeling cold afterwards because it is, if you think about Thanksgiving dinner, you spend hours and hours and hours in the kitchen prepping and people wolf down the food in 15 minutes and it's time to retire to the couch and take a nap. It's really kind of a letdown, and the holiday hangover from Thanksgiving through New Year's is, I mean, that's a big thing in our society and it does create a bit of a letdown. How do we cure?
He talked to a woman with nine and a half decades of experience, his grandmother, Caddy, and she had a wonderful perspective on all this. I asked what advice she'd give me as I continued along this path in life. She looked me in the eyes, patted my leg and responded, "Seems like today everyone is so busy racing. All that racing means they're busy doing things, but also more likely to miss the gifts that are in front of them right now." After 94 years of living life, raising kids, losing friends, enduring recessions and wars, learning through mistakes, savoring the good stuff, my grandma realizes that the very success many sprint toward professionally, relationally in parenting is elusive because we don't slow down enough to notice gifts that are already ours to celebrate.
I remember this. I had to look it up, but I remember this being so perfectly illustrated in an episode of the Andy Griffith Show. It's called Man in a Hurry from 1963, you can find it on YouTube, but it perfectly illustrates this. Now, 2025 is a little different from 1963, but still, it perfectly illustrates the need for us occasionally to slow down and breathe deep and experience life in a fuller way.
He's writing to us again now. "My friend, as we step into a new year with new goals, new resolutions, new opportunities, and new uncertainties, I encourage you to embrace the sage advice to slow down and not miss the gifts that are in front of you right now. It's the perfect medicine for the hangover so many are struggling with today. Slow down. Take an inventory of the blessings in your life. Look around at all you have. Take account of the lessons you've learned, the adventures you've experienced, the wisdom you've received and the life you've lived and the possibilities before you. Today is your day, live inspired."
Great, great advice. It reminded me the part about inventory all the blessings in your life. That was an exercise that I first heard from, this goes back a long time, before 1963 even, a man named Earl Nightingale. He counseled that one thing you should do daily is grab a piece of paper and a pen and just sit down and write down 20 things that you're grateful for. He said that gratitude is the most noble emotion, and the more we can experience gratitude, the more we can experience what it is to be fully human. I've seen it written in so many different ways since hearing it from Mr. Nightingale, but it's a great exercise. I did it for a while myself. It really does sort of center things for you. And so I would say, if you can follow the advice of John O'Leary and especially his grandmother, if you can watch Andy Griffith from 1963, and if you can take the advice of Earl Nightingale, I think that will help a long ways towards curing the holiday hangover. Happy holidays, everyone.
This is Wayne at PCA, where We Build Better Contractors.
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