I need to listen to my own advice!

Three weeks ago I offered a list of pointers for slicing through the stress that the holidays often muster. If you are feeling the weight of overwhelm, search the archive for ‘Christmas Chopping’. I just had to!

One particular reminder I needed is about reining in our expectations.

A couple of weeks ago, I was treated to a delightful afternoon with Bermudian legend, Ronnie Chameau: maker of exquisite banana dolls, artist and endless source of local history and stories.

She was teaching us her art of making angles out of leaves. The six-year-old next to me — hers was coming along well. I, however, was struggling with the first step, like a gorilla threading a needle.

It wasn’t looking quite how I wanted and my frustration levels were rising.

A wonderful time with friends and creativity and I’m there steaming, wanting to ring my little banana doll’s neck for not being perfect. How very festive!

It almost happened again. Our office party, this year, while not exactly like the movie, was inspired and so much fun. We went to Dockyard Glassworks and had a lesson in assembling pieces of glass to be fired into new creations of jewellery or ornaments or sun-catchers.

Once again, my need for mine to be ‘perfect’ started to niggle — so much so that for some time I just sat there, stumped, reluctant to begin.

Fortunately, I caught myself. I was there, with my colleagues, to have fun.

Wasn’t that the purpose of the afternoon? Wouldn’t that be a great outcome from our time together, whatever I made? Was I likely to get that if I was fretting about making anything perfect?

Unsurprisingly, as soon as I put aside my need to ‘get it right’, the ideas began to flow and I had an absolute ball concocting beautiful and crazy creations of colour and shape — really enjoying myself, the process, and the good company. What could be more perfect than that?

This time of year is full of activities and opportunities for the Grinch of ‘perfectionism’ to steal away.

Whether it’s the cooking, the decorating or finding that ‘perfect’ gift — filling ourselves with angst about it kind of defeats the purpose, no? Screaming abdabs on Christmas day when the turkey isn’t done yet and the Brussels sprouts are burnt … Who me? I don’t know what you’re talking about!

But not this year.

I still have my goal to make a great meal with festive decor and surprises under the tree. But even if it doesn’t look exactly like it does on the box, if we can laugh about it, get creative and have a good time in the process, surely that’s good enough for me. Keeping in mind my objectives, what’s truly important about this goal and our time together, will keep the perfectionist Grinch out in the cold.

The perfect Christmas will be the one we get, warts, burnt sprouts and all … From my family to yours, wishing you a wonderful and ‘perfect’ holiday (although preferably no warts!)

•Julia Pitt is a trained success coach and certified NLP practitioner on the team at Benedict Associates. For further information contact Julia on 705-7488, www.juliapittcoach ing.com.