Riddle: So, what would Taylor Swift do for Christmas?
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
I used to think Taylor Swift's "Last year I gave you my heart" the most unlikely Christmas song of all time. Kind of a downer, you know? This year I changed my mind when I started thinking about how she markets, her interest in doing good, her focus, her assertiveness. That lead to how I might have misinterpreted the message of her lyrics and try to reframe my interpretation for her themes like this: "Everyone makes mistakes." "With the right attitude we can tackle anything we encounter." Don't expect immediate results from efforts to recover from disappointments—large or small ones." It's too late to fix the world, but never too late for a little mending (in her case a year after the fact!"
So, why the change of mind? Well, it's November and my holiday shopping is usually almost done by now, so I started to stress about my 2023 booboos ...and long before. What would Taylor do?
I was surprised that often I had been neglecting my own advice, but I came up with some new ideas to ease my anxiety, too. So I am sharing a few of both.
1. First on the list may come as a surprise. Sit down, log in on your calendar, and set an early-bird date for the day after December 25 to bargain shop for gifts for this year and ever after. Consider making your contact list into a veritable personal assistant using your calendar's alerts feature. Make this project all about your memorable occasions—birthdays, holidays, even marketing events like National Writers Day which I missed this year! (It will be Nov first in 2024.) As you find gifts, make a note, date it and don't remove it. You'll be surprised how it becomes handier with each year.
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