247: Pre-Thanksgiving Special: The Permission Slip You Need This Holiday

Pre-Thanksgiving Special: The Permission Slip You Need This Holiday

Feeling like you need to earn your rest before the holidays? This pre-Thanksgiving episode gives you the permission slip you've been waiting for - but probably wouldn't give yourself. Host Cindy Gordon, creator of the Reality Check Method and execution coach for overwhelmed entrepreneurs, reveals why rest isn't something you earn - it's something you require.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why "earning rest" keeps you exhausted and resentful
• The 3 Permission Slips every entrepreneur needs this holiday season
• How to rest without justifying it to yourself or anyone else
• Permission to disappoint someone to honor yourself
• Why doing the holidays differently isn't selfish - it's strategic
• The truth about peace as a productivity tool

Perfect for: Overwhelmed entrepreneurs, female business owners, and anyone walking into the holidays carrying guilt, exhaustion, and mental tabs you can't seem to close.

Episode Highlights: "You don't need to finish everything before you rest. Rest is a requirement, not a reward."

"A rested CEO makes better decisions than a burnt-out one. Your peace is a productivity tool."

"You're allowed to disappoint someone to honor yourself. Protect your peace over pleasing people."

Resources mentioned:

• The Reality Check Method
• Year-End Reset (inside The Growth Collective)

Stop earning rest. Start honoring it. You've already earned it by making it through another year of doing hard things.

🎯 You don't have to figure this out alone! The Growth Collective is your $1/day business support community with weekly office hours, strategic frameworks, and entrepreneurs who get it. Less than your coffee, more than a mastermind. Details at https://exclusivelycindy.thrivecart.com/the-growth-collective/

💡 Don't forget to subscribe for more quick productivity tips for overwhelmed business owners and female entrepreneurs!

💌 Join 1,400+ entrepreneurs getting exclusive overwhelm solutions and productivity strategies straight to their inbox - sign up now! https://cindygordon.myflodesk.com/countmein

Connect with Cindy Gordon - Reality Check Method Coach for Overwhelmed Entrepreneurs:

• Website: ExclusivelyCindy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exclusivelycindy/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cindygordon

Transcript

0:00

Alright, friend, grab a cup of coffee because I've got a little pre-Thanksgiving pep talk for you. This one's not about strategy or productivity hacks. It's about permission. The permission slip you've been waiting for, but probably wouldn't give yourself, because the truth is most entrepreneurs walk into the holidays carrying guilt, exhaustion, and about 47 open browser tabs. Mentally and emotionally, you are trying to finish projects, wrap up quarter four, manage your home life, and somehow also soak in that holiday magic. But underneath it all, you are exhausted and pretending that you're fine. Hi, I'm Cindy Gordon and you are listening to The Overwhelmed Entrepreneur Podcast. Before we dive in, if you are not on my email list yet, that's where I share weekly productivity tips with 1500 other entrepreneurs and the behind the scenes systems that I use to stay productive while running my business. You can find the link in the show notes to sign up for that. Today I am sharing the mindset shift that helped me stop earning rest and start. Honoring it. This is what usually happens around this time of year. You promise yourself you'll slow down for the holidays, but your brain doesn't actually stop running. You're cooking dinner while thinking about next quarter's content plan. You're trying to enjoy family time, but your mind is stuck on invoices and unfinished projects. You're scrolling your phone and feeling behind because other people are already posting their big year end announcements. These patterns show up constantly in my work with other entrepreneurs. They know they need rest, but they don't feel allowed to take it. It's not that you don't want the rest, it's that you just don't feel you've earned it yet. You haven't finished everything. You haven't hit your goals. You haven't proven that you deserve a break. But here's the reality check. You don't need to earn your rest. You've already earned it. We treat rest like a reward instead of a requirement. We've been conditioned to believe that downtime has to be justified, and we just have to make it to that finish line and finish everything before we are allowed to stop. But your body and brain do not work that way. They need recovery regardless of whether your inbox is at zero or your projects are checked off as complete. Rest isn't a luxury you earn after productivity. It is the foundation that makes productivity possible. There's actual science behind why this matters. When you push through exhaustion, your decision making gets worse, your creativity drops, and you start making mistakes that cost more time than rest would have. But we override these signals because we've been taught that stopping equals weakness or falling behind the truth is simpler. You are a human running a business, not a machine, and humans require recovery to function well. So today I am handing you three official permission slips for this holiday season. Think of these as the reality checks you need before the chaos hits first, permission to rest. Without justifying it, you are allowed to rest without earning it first. You do not need to finish everything before you rest. You do not need to make it productive. You don't even need a plan for what you'll do when you feel refreshed, you just need to rest because humans require recovery. Take naps. Watch that holiday movie, do absolutely nothing for a whole afternoon. The world will not fall apart. And if it does, it wasn't built right anyway. Second, permission to disappoint someone in order to honor yourself. This one is A little bit harder to swallow. You are allowed to disappoint someone to protect your own peace. You might not make every event. You might have to tell a client, I'll pick this back up next week. You might have to turn down a collaboration or a sale that feels wrong right now. That's not selfish, that's stewardship. You are responsible for your energy. Nobody else's and the people who belong in your world will understand or they'll learn to third permission to do the holidays differently. This year, you are allowed to make this season simple. No, you don't need to do every tradition. No, you don't need to post a highlight reel of gratitude. No, you don't need to run yourself into the ground because that's just how I've always done it. You can create your own version of peace. Maybe that's a smaller dinner, a quiet day, or fewer social obligations. Maybe it's saying, I'm not launching anything this week. I'm recharging. That's the kind of leadership your future self will. Thank you for. So let's be prepared for when that guilt tries to creep in and trip us up. The first thing we're gonna do to combat that is we are going to write things down, so all of your permissions, don't listen to this episode and forget it. I want you to actually write down these three permissions in your planner on a sticky note in your phone. Second practice saying them out loud. I am a huge believer in saying things out loud. If it makes you feel silly, even better. I want you to be silly. I want you to say them out loud because it works. I want you to say, I am allowed to rest without finishing everything. Say it until it stops feeling weird. Your brain needs to hear you claim this permission before it will believe you. Third, build them into your calendar before the holidays start block off downtime, reduce your workload. Put rest day on your calendar like it's a client meeting because rest is an appointment with yourself and you deserve to keep it. So here's what it might look like in practice checking email once a day instead of constantly. Closing your laptop at 5:00 PM on Wednesday and not opening it till Monday. Telling clients you're at reduced capacity this week, saying no to the quick collaboration that would steal your recovery time. So let me give you a little bit of the behind the scenes from my own journey when it comes to this. A few years ago at Thanksgiving, I didn't stop moving for four straight days, cooking, cleaning, catching up on work, and trying to make everything perfect. When it was over, I realized I hadn't enjoyed any of it. I had been so focused on doing everything right that I forgot why I was doing it all. I was performing the holidays, I wasn't living them. Now I build permission slips into my calendar before the holidays even start. I block off downtime. I reduce my workload, and I remind myself that arrested CEO makes better decisions than a burnt out one ever will. And you know what happened? My business didn't crumble. It actually grew because I did. I made better decisions. I showed up with more energy, and I stopped resenting my business and started enjoying it again. That's the power of giving yourself permission to actually be human. I want you to remember that you don't need to prove your worth through productivity. You can take time off, you can rest. You can actually breathe. And the world and your business will still be there when you come back. So this is your official permission slip for the holidays to rest, recharge, and to trust that slowing down is part of your success journey because peace is a productivity tool and you've earned it. So here's your homework. Before the Turkey hits the table, write down your three permission slips. Block off some rest time on your calendar and tell your accountability person that you are taking a real break this week. And if you need a community that supports this kind of balance and remind you that slowing down isn't falling behind, come join us inside the Growth Collective membership link in the show notes for more information. If you're on Instagram, gimme a follow at exclusively. Cindy and Friend, I am truly grateful for you now, go enjoy your week gu free, and remember, you've got this. Thanks for spending these few minutes with me today. Remember, overwhelm isn't permanent. It's simply your brain's way of saying pause and take a little reality check. If this was helpful, you'll love my weekly email tips where I share the systems that keep me and hundreds of other entrepreneurs on Track Link in the show notes. If you got value in today's episode, please share it with another entrepreneur who needs that reminder. If you're loving the show, I'd be so grateful if you could leave me a quick review. It helps other overwhelmed entrepreneurs find us. Make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss your weekly dose of clarity. For more resources and to connect with me, visit exclusively cindy.com. Until next time, remember you've got this.