Run-up

It is tempting if not natural to focus all our attention on the point of climax, but it is more important to focus our energy on the run-up to an event and make do preparations. Now that we are approaching the Christmas holidays and end-of-year celebrations, we naturally look forward to the key dates, namely Christmas Eve (24th December), Christmas Day (25th December), Boxing Day (26th December), New Year’s Eve (31st December) and New Year’s Day (1st January). These are the days in which mass celebrations occur and everyone gets a bit of the pie (literally), and those are the occasions to which we all look forward as they contain moments of joy and happiness we relish. Once the season is over, however, and we go back to our normal routine that consists of our usual working hours (9-5 or not), it does feel a bit of an anticlimax, and the higher the holiday climax, the lower and more depressing it feels in its aftermath, but in our fast-paced world where things happen very quickly we should, and indeed must, be able to recover and revert to our pre-holiday form of old as quickly as possible lest we fall behind, especially at the beginning of the year when we should be setting the pace and mood for the rest of the year.

The end-of-year holidays are indeed wonderful, but what is special about them is the buzz and anticipation in the long build-up to the crunch dates (12 days of Christmas etc), which is different from annual holidays such as the seasonal breaks where it seems to be a matter of formality to break up and reconvene at a later point. The Christmas spirit is by no means isolated to the three days surrounding the legendary birth of Christ and New Year’s vibes are not restricted to the last night of the year and the first day of the new year. In the build-up to the holidays known as the festive period, there are many things that people do and various ways that can condition our holiday mood and organisation, which typically falls somewhere between these two extremes: either we do nothing in preparation and only turn up on the days mentioned above where we immerse ourselves in the spirit of it all or we do meticulous planning and anticipate every single moment in our holidays so as to make them as eventful and enjoyable as possible. There are pros and cons to these two approaches: in the latter form of ultra-strategic planning and management, everything is catered for as carefully and fully as possible, which takes a lot of effort but it is all worthwhile in the end as it can lead to an exhilarating and fulfilling experience at the grand occasion where all our planning efforts pay off, but in such a carefully crafted organisation of events there may lack spontaneity and hence a loss of genuine enjoyment, as one already knows what to expect, even if what is to be expected has been planned to be absolutely wonderful. In the other form of ‘anticipation’ where there is no planning at all and one simply goes with the flow, one does not know what to expect and the lack of expectation may lead to pleasant surprises, which may be even more enjoyable than carefully planned events. Holiday planning can be highly rewarding (even if highly stressful), but even if one tries to anticipate all possible contingencies and make the holiday experience as good as possible, on the actual days of celebration anything can happen, and while we tend to dislike and resent surprises, a little dose of spontaneity can be the cream of the cake.

I was taught at school to appreciate the process more than the result (something that I forgot in my undergraduate days at university), which is indeed a common dictum. This is relevant to high-performing adults who need to step up and perform on a regular basis, let it be public concerts/recitals given by professional musicians or competitive matches in which professional sportsmen participate or public examinations undertaken by scholars. It is natural to look forward to the top of the hill or the finishing line of a race, but in practice these occasions to which we work so hard for are only a very small part of one’s development. It is the process leading up to the end result that is most important, since this is the phase in which we seek improvements, develop and grow as human beings. In fact, I was once told that the less I worried about the final outcome, the more improvement and progress I would make, and if one can concentrate solely on the long-term development, one’s final performance could become a natural concomitant result of one’s long and hard labour and on the day of the performance one can simply shine spontaneously without even thinking about it. I have yet to experience such a supreme form of performance where no thought or effort is needed to perform at peak level, since no matter how hard I try, I always need to keep my guard and focus on the day of the performance lest I make avoidable mistakes and spoil all the work that I have done, but I do appreciate that the more one does during the process, the less one needs to worry about the result and the more rewards one can reap from it.

Upon checking, I discovered that the first draft of this blogpost was drafted on 22nd December 2022 and I have only just finalised it for publication in the run-up to Christmas 2023. I was supposed to put all my thoughts down this time last year and I remember putting it aside with the intention of picking it up for the Easter holidays (another major event with a massive build-up as we hail the death and resurrection of Christ), but it seems to have fallen into oblivion and only just been resurrected. As this is likely to be my last blogpost of 2023, may I wish all my readers a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.