This is a guest post by the famous Walt Hampton.

December can be a crazy month. It can feel like an energy vortex sucking us forward at warp speed only to dump us out breathless and exhausted sometime around the end of January. It’s pretty easy to wear yourself out so that there’s nothing left at all.

If you want to crash and burn, I can teach you how!!! (Based on graduate-level experience!).

Here’s what you should do:

• Go to every holiday party
• Wander aimlessly in a crowded, noisy mall
• Buy token gifts because you ‘should’
• Decorate until you drop
• Surf the net for all the deals
• Don’t miss any sales
• Buy lots of ‘toys’ so you’ll be loved
• Max out all your credit cards
• Drink a lot
• Eat a lot
• Say ‘yes’ to every invitation
• Send a ton of cards
• Network until you drop
• Bake a lot, especially if you need to lose some weight
• Work late every single night
• Drive every deal to conclusion
• Update your ‘status’ often
• Tweet frequently
• Link-In a lot
• Put your ‘diet’ off until ‘after’ the holidays
• ‘Think about’ a fitness program… in the New Year
• Surround yourself with chaos and with noise

There is, of course, another way. But it requires some deliberation and some courage.

• Say ‘no’ more than you say ‘yes’
• If you think you ‘should,’ you probably shouldn’t
• Think gifts of service and of presence rather than more ‘stuff’
• Connect deeply with those who matter most
• Guard zealously your health and wellness
• Beat your neighbors to the punch and join (and go to) the gym today
• Protect your boundaries
• Take lots of time for you
• Know – with certainty – that, if it doesn’t all get done, no one dies

December is a wonderful month to get quiet. To reflect… on what went well… on where we could improve.

December is a wonderful month to plan for the year ahead.

December is a time to be present, to share ever more deeply the gifts that are yours alone to share; to celebrate the birth of Love into the world; to mark the return of Light.

Or, for sure, you can crash and burn.

You get to choose.