the Best present
LIFE LESSONS

the Best present

My wife understands. My kids, not so much.

The author and his family, Christmas 2020

I think the best present I can give to my family at Christmas is being present.

My wife gets that gift. My kids, sometimes not so much.

My kids are young and don’t immediately get the significance of this.

There will always be tasks, people, or things competing for your 24 hours.

It doesn’t matter who you are, what’s in your bank account. Somebody somewhere wants your time.

If you were to peek in on my life, you would think that somebody wants my time more than I’m willing to fight to keep it.

I have my moments of being overwhelmed with stuff. It gets the better of me sometimes. And being present with my family can suffer.

So I take a step back, do a 15-minute workout, take a walk, or have a 10-minute nap with music in my ears.

Rejuvenated, now I’m ready to step back onto the battlefield.

That’s how it is. It’s a battlefield, and either you’ll win and take control of your time, or someone will.

I take responsibility to protect my time. If I don’t, somebody or some valueless task will steal it.

So here we are at Christmastime. What’s the best present to give to my family?

According to Google, $1536USD is the average amount of money spent each Christmas on gifts per household.

22% of Americans believe their Christmas spending will leave them in debt.

Buying a present is almost effortless.

Thanks to Amazon, it’s down to 2 or 3 swipes, 1 click, and 1 more swipe, and the present is on its way.

I’m not against spending money on presents. I’m against NOT being present.

My kids have a bunch of gifts wrapped and ready to go. But the gifts I wrapped aren’t the most important kind.

The best present I give to my family this Christmas and every day forward is being present.

I recommit that when I’m with my family, I’ll be with my family.

More than having social media turned off, I mentally turn the world off. If that means temporarily deleting certain apps and alarms and notifications, so be it.

It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

I schedule it. I schedule work hours; why wouldn’t I schedule time with my family?

Mental prep.

This is not like a separate task. I mentally get excited throughout the day about the things we have planned, about the time I’m spending with my fam-jam.

It could be board games, chess, hanging out, reading, talking, movies, going for a walk, working out together, snacking… whatever it is, I think about it, smile about it, I get excited about being with my family.

Yes, I should be excited to spend time with family, but sometimes life gets in the way.

Sometimes I’m off my game, and that’s ok as long as I get back at it quickly.

What’s not ok is having a lazy attitude towards the people that matter most to me. They deserve better. They deserve the present of presence.

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['Phil Wall']
['Christmas', 'Attitude', 'Family', 'Time Management', 'Personal Development']