Welcome to Lovers of Wisdom. Christmas is glorious. Ready, set, go.

A place where everyone is striving for what isn't worth having. This is how Thackery describes Vanity Fair in his novel of 1848. It aptly defines so much of our culture, a place where everyone is striving for what isn't worth having. It aptly describes how many people approach Christmas each year, a place where everyone is striving for what isn't worth having. Welcome to Best Christmas Ever. In the next 28 days, we are going to explore 28 ways to make this the best Christmas ever and 28 things that will prevent you from having your best Christmas ever. In the process, we will see striving for everything that isn't worth having and focus our efforts on the very few things that matter most, the things we should strive for with our whole hearts, minds, bodies, and souls.

So number one, decide to fail on purpose. I know it sounds crazy. It is completely counterintuitive. It is the opposite of what our success-focused, overproductive achievement-obsessed culture tells us 10 million times throughout our lives. What am I talking about? You cannot do everything. You cannot succeed at everything. You cannot be the best at everything. And despite what the culture would like you to believe, you cannot have it all. You have to choose. You cannot play golf and tennis on Saturday afternoon at the same time. It's okay to fail. It's okay to miss out. We miss out on almost everything if you really stop to think about it. Every time you decide to do one thing, you are deciding not to do everything else. When you choose a career, you choose not to do every other profession. When I chose to marry my wife, I didn't think, "Oh, I'm missing out on the other 4 billion women on the planet." Our lives are forged with tough choices or wasted in indecision. It's time to start intentionally neglecting things that don't matter. It's okay to fail at things that aren't important. It's necessary. It's wise. It's the only sane thing to do in a world full of unlimited options. You fail every day. You are going to fail every day for the rest of your life. The key is to fail at the right things, to fail at the things that don't matter.

So as we begin this journey toward Christmas, take a few minutes and identify what really matters this Christmas. Don't make a long list. This will just set you up to fail at what matters most and lead you to feel anxious, overwhelmed, and defeated. Choose three things. What really matters this Christmas? Your three things might be to host a wonderful family gathering, have a powerful encounter with God on Christmas Day at church. Make this an amazing Christmas for someone else. That might be your three things. This kind of clarity is liberating. By getting clear about the most important things, you begin to realize that there are a great many things that it is okay to fail at because they don't matter that much. You can then decide what to intentionally neglect. You can decide what to intentionally fail at. Whatever three you decide upon, keep them at the top of your to-do list as you journey toward Christmas, this advent. You probably won't get it right the first time, and you can change it as you reflect more in the coming days, but resist the temptation to add to this list of three. Keep the list at three. There will be other important things, but these are the three most important things. If you want to put something else on the list, you have to take something off the list. This simple three-item list will help you remain clear about what matters most this Christmas. Keep another list with the dozens of things you need to do to prepare for Christmas. But at every point between now and Christmas, be clear about the three things that matter most. Every time you feel obliged, compelled, or guilted into doing something for Christmas, reflect on your top three priorities and ask yourself, "Am I giving these enough time and attention?" "Things that matter most should never be at the mercy of things that matter least," was Goethe's observation, but we let it happen all the time. Decide here and now that, this Christmas, you will not let the things that matter least rule over the things that matter most. If you want to have your best Christmas ever, begin by deciding what matters most this Christmas and then honor, celebrate, prioritize, and bask in those few things. Release yourself from the tyranny of the trivial many and adopt the wisdom of the vital few.

Are you excited for your best Christmas ever? I know I am. But before you go, let's talk about how to avoid your worst Christmas ever.

It's harder than you might think to have a great Christmas, and it's much easier to ruin your Christmas. There are, of course, plenty of very obvious ways to ruin your Christmas for yourself and everyone around you. Examples include: insist on talking about politics, tell your relatives what you really think about them as if it were objective fact, rewrap a gift someone gave you last year and re-gift it to the same person who gave it to you, try to control everything and everyone, tell every kid you meet that Santa isn't real and that their parents are lying to them. These are the obvious ways, but we are going to explore the more subtle ways we sabotage our own Christmas experience and rob others of Christmas joy. Obstacle number one is FOMO. That's right, fear of missing out. This is one of the greatest pieces of modern insanity, FOMO. The reality is you miss out on almost everything. The important thing is not to miss out on the things God created and intended just for you. Focus on what matters most, and don't worry about what you may or may not miss out on. If you focus on what matters most, what you miss out on is irrelevant. So get clear about what matters most. Find your joy. Guard your joy. Follow your joy, not just happiness. It seems our culture has confused happiness with comfort, and following comfort will lead you to misery. Find your joy, cherish your joy, guard your joy, and follow your joy. Busy is not your friend. Only a toxic friend leaves you feeling anxious, overwhelmed, discouraged, exhausted, stressed out, inadequate, and resentful. It's time to take our lives back from this time we call busy. It's time to slow down to the speed of joy. Click the button below to join the Ambassadors Club today, and we will send you a free copy of my new book Slowing Down to the Speed of Joy.

Have a great day.