Your To-Do List for Fall
Here we are at the beginning of fall. I love the crisp fall weather, college football (Go Vols!) and making chili in the slow cooker.
What I don’t love is the busyness of the fourth quarter of the year. Jewish High Holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Giving Tuesday, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s.
I love seeing friends and family, but every year, it seems to get more hectic.
You’re probably planning your personal holiday schedule while also looking at your organization’s needs for this quarter. You might be writing your year-end appeal letter or scheduling your Giving Tuesday activities.
Before we get too far into the fourth quarter, let me challenge you to think about your thinking.
Do you really have to do it all?
All those things you’re thinking about.
Can you just drop Giving Tuesday? How much do you really raise during that event from brand new donors?
What can you drop? What’s really the priority? Do you have to be the one to do it, or can you delegate that to someone else?
I mean the personal things as well as the business things.
Do you have to create the perfect holiday family photo card or the amazing dinner spread at Thanksgiving? Can you send a simple email to your family members instead, or buy part of dinner at the store?
Must you do it all? Must it be done perfectly? Must it be done by you?
Sometimes all that’s needed is for you to give yourself permission to change things, to give yourself permission to accept the imperfect but still lovely.
You can change the bar.
After all, it’s usually you who’s setting the bar. You don’t have to raise the bar every year.
The more I collaborate with clients, the more I hear this self-valuation: They value themselves based on how much they do, how much they produce, and how perfectly they do it.
Do you have value as you are, as a human being, rather than for what you produce? Yes.
Instead of automatically thinking “I have so much to do” between now and the end of the year, why not ask yourself “what can I set down and delete from my list?”
Feeling overly busy and that you must do it all is a thinking problem, not a doing problem.
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Let’s develop an effective fundraising plan, boost the performance of your team, ensure your organization’s sustainability, and overcome your leadership challenges by examining your mindset now. Contact me today!