You don't need to push harder this holiday season. You need to work on your boundaries. Most entrepreneurs roll into November and December telling themselves, I'll just get through this busy holiday season and then I will rest. But here's what actually happens. You stack your calendar with last minute projects. You say yes to every client request. You try to be present for family school events, travel all of it. And by January, you feel like you need a three month nap. Hi, I'm Cindy Gordon, a self-made entrepreneur, busy mom and execution coach. I built and sold multiple digital businesses ranging from five to six figure successes, and I've learned the hard way that holiday boundaries aren't selfish. They are essential for sustainable business growth. Before we dive in, if you are not on my weekly email list, to get productivity tips and tricks, we need to change that. Grab the link in the show notes. To get these behind the scenes systems that I personally use to stay productive while running my business. Let me guess that your holidays typically look like this. You tell yourself you'll slow down, but then a client project pops up with a end of the year urgency. You decide to run a last minute sale because everybody else is. Your family expects you to be fully present and available, and you still have normal business tasks like content admin and customer support. So on paper you're off or slowing down, but in reality, you're working from your phone answering dms between events and trying to sneak in one more task while everyone is watching a movie. You are not resting, but you're not fully working either. You're in that miserable InBetween where you feel guilty no matter what you do. This is a recurring theme that I have seen with the women in my community. They hit January, drained, annoyed with their business, and needing weeks to recover from the holidays. Instead of feeling energized for the new year. The holidays don't automatically create stress. The lack of boundaries around your time and energy does, there are three big reasons that entrepreneurs struggle with boundaries around the holidays. The first one is people pleasing. You don't wanna disappoint people, clients, family, friends. So you say yes even when your body and brain is screaming. No. The second is scarcity mindset. You worry that if you slow down or take off time, the money will stop. The clients will leave, or opportunities will just disappear altogether. The third is confusion about what truly matters. Everything feels equally important, so you treat every email, every sale idea, and every request as urgent. Your brain is constantly scanning for fires instead of focusing on the things that are actually important, like rest, relationships, and the core parts of your business that keep it healthy, long term, here's how to build a holiday business boundary plan using four simple steps that you can literally implement today. Start with deciding your holiday intention. Most people slide into holidays in reaction mode, so I want you to ask yourself, what do I want this season to feel like? Maybe your words are calm, connected, and steady, or maybe they're simple, spacious, and joyful. Pick three words. Those are your filter. If something pulls you away from those words, it's a sign that a boundary is needed. The next thing is you need to set your on and off days. This is where you need to stop being vague and get super specific. Decide what days am I working in my business and what days am I completely off? Maybe you choose to work normal hours until December 15th, and then move to half days for a week, and then take the last week of the year fully off. There's no right answer here. The point is that you need to decide ahead of time instead of letting your schedule be decided for you. Then you're gonna choose what's inbounds and what's out of bounds. Decide what kind of work is allowed during your holiday work hours and what is not. Inbounds might be things like serving current clients essential admin tasks like payment or customer support, or two strategic projects that truly matter for quarter one out of bounds might look like launching a brand new offer from scratch, saying yes to last minute, one-off projects that actually drain you or overcommitting to collaborations that actually don't move the needle. Then you are gonna create boundary scripts. Here are a couple ready to use lines that you can tweak for yourself. An example for clients, you might say, thanks so much for thinking of me. I'm at capacity for the rest of the year and I'm protecting time for current clients and family. If you'd like, I can revisit this in January for those last minute project requests, you might say, I wouldn't be able to give this the quality attention it deserves before the holidays, and I don't wanna rush it. My next availability is after the new year. Would you like to grab a spot then, let me walk you through how to make your holiday business boundaries stick When the season gets loud, first you're gonna write it down. All of it. Don't keep the boundaries in your head. Write down your intention words, your on and off days, your inbounds and out of bounds lists, and your scripts in your planner or notes app on your phone. Then you are gonna make yourself accountable. You're gonna tell at least one person who supports you. Maybe it's a business friend, a coach, a bestie, someone inside your community. I want you to say, here are my boundaries for the holiday. If you see me, overcommitting, I want you to remind me of this. This creates accountability when you're old patterns tried to keep in. Third, expect some discomfort. Your brain will tell you that you're gonna let people down. You should be doing more. If you say no, then they'll never ask again. But this is just your fear talking. You can feel uncomfortable and still hold the boundary. Discomfort is not a danger sign. It's a sign that you're doing something different. Let me give you a little bit of behind the scenes on my own business. I've had holiday seasons where I've had zero boundaries, and I said yes to everything and tried to squeeze in as much income as possible and told myself I'd rest in January. What actually happened? I hit January, completely drained, annoyed with my business, ready to burn it all down, and needing weeks to recover. Then I tried it a little bit differently. I decided my days off ahead of time. I told my clients that my response time might be slower during certain weeks. I chose one key project to move forward and let everything else wait, and you know what happened? Nothing exploded. Nobody fired me for having boundaries. Revenue didn't vanish, but I stepped into the new year actually excited about my business instead of resenting it. That's the power of protecting your energy on purpose. If you take one thing away from our conversation today, I want you to remember, you are not selfish for setting boundaries. You are being a responsible CEO, who's protecting your energy for what actually matters, your health, your relationships, and the core parts of your business that will still be here in January. Okay. After this episode is over, I want you to take five minutes and do three things. Number one, pick your three intention words for this current holiday season. Two, decide on your work days, your on days, and your off days, and put'em in your calendar. And three, write one simple script that you can use to say no or not right now. If you like these productivity and business tips and tricks, please be sure to follow me on Instagram at exclusively, Cindy. Now go protect your energy, your future self, and your future business will be so glad that you did. 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.