Your Daily Boost – Episode 648

The December Circus

I didn’t realize how strange December was until I started paying attention to it while everyone else was mentally clocked out. There’s something uncanny about this month, like the whole world collectively agreed to work half-heartedly while judging everyone else for doing the same. Offices don’t close, but they feel abandoned. Emails still arrive, but none of them sound serious anymore. Calendars stay full, yet nobody attends anything with their full brain. Somewhere around mid-December, professionalism quietly grabs its coat and says, “I’ll see you next year,” and nobody tries to stop it.

You start to notice the energy shifts in tiny, absurd ways. Half the office is already “working remote,” but nobody knows from where. One guy has been “in transit” for nine business days. Meetings start late because someone’s grabbing coffee, which in December apparently means traveling across state lines to find the perfect gingerbread latte. Slack messages get weirder. People stop ending emails with punctuation like it costs extra. Attention spans collapse into dust. Everyone’s walking around with a thousand-yard stare like they just got back from a war called Amazon Prime.

And then there’s the social layer on top of it all, which is its own traveling circus. You’re jumping between family dinners, office parties, school stuff, friend gatherings, and that one weird event you agreed to in October because you thought December would be a calmer version of life. Somehow every weeknight becomes a Saturday night and every weekend looks like a logistics exercise you’d normally assign to a junior analyst.

It’s not even that people are lazy…they’re overstimulated. December doesn’t slow life down, it just rearranges it into chaos and throws in tinsel as a distraction. The workload doesn’t really disappear. It just hides behind decorations and travel plans and the illusion that time isn’t real for thirty days. Clients still want answers. Projects still exist. Bills keep showing up with the audacity to be due during Christmas. Life doesn’t pause just because Hallmark told it to be magical.

What makes it funny is the dual personality everyone develops. On one hand, you’re talking about resets, gratitude, family, and reflection. On the other hand, you’re secretly irritated that the Starbucks line is moving too slow because somebody ordered something called peppermint foam that requires a chemical engineering degree to make. You’re thinking about the meaning of the year while aggressively refreshing your UPS tracking number like your emotional stability depends on it.

December asks you to be peaceful and productive at the same time, and that is a ridiculous expectation. It’s like asking someone to meditate while assembling IKEA furniture. Technically possible…not enjoyable…definitely not quiet.

The thing I’ve learned is that December isn’t chaos…December exposes it. You start seeing how thin some systems are when they don’t have momentum doing the heavy lifting. You see how much of your routine depends on being busy enough not to notice the cracks. When that urgency drops off, the cracks get louder. The unfinished stuff gets heavier. The unresolved conversations start tapping you on the shoulder like an unpaid bill.

You realize how many things you’ve been outrunning all year simply by scheduling your life into exhaustion. With that gone, suddenly your mind starts handing you receipts instead of distractions. It remembers things you promised you’d deal with. It replays conversations you pretended didn’t bother you. It reminds you of stuff you shelved with the absolute confidence you’d have more energy someday. Meanwhile the world around you is dressed like a parade…And it creates this weird split where everything looks light but feels heavy.

This is the month where people do three contradictory things simultaneously: slow down, speed up, and emotionally avoid everything they promised themselves they’d process “when things calm down.” Which is hilarious because December is not calm. It’s loud with quiet panic. Loud with fake cheer. Loud with unspoken stress wearing a Santa hat. And yet…there’s also something hidden inside this chaos that doesn’t exist the same way in any other month.

Margin.

December gives you less noise and more pressure at the same time. Fewer meetings but bigger feelings. Less structure but more intention floating in the air. It’s the only month where people rethink their lives while actively trying not to spill gravy in front of their in-laws. This is the time of year when you accidentally learn things about yourself because your usual escapes aren’t working as well. Your distractions have lower resolution. Scrolling feels dull. Binge-watching doesn’t swallow anxiety like it did in March. The novelty is gone. The emotional credit card is maxed.

You see your life a little clearer when there’s nowhere left to hide inside it.

And if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice things this month that looked fine when you were busier. You’ll notice where your energy drains for no good reason. You’ll notice which relationships feel easy and which ones feel like emotional CrossFit. You’ll notice whether you’ve been living aligned or just staying occupied. Nobody likes noticing that stuff. That’s why December gets blamed for being “weird” instead of being recognized as honest.

Honest months don’t get good PR. They don’t sell greeting cards. They don’t make cash registers sing. They bring inventory instead. Emotional inventory. Relational inventory. Personal inventory. The kind that doesn’t ask for inspiration…just honesty. And what I find fascinating is how differently people handle this. Some double down on busyness. Add more plans. Add more noise. Refuse to be alone with their thoughts for longer than a microwave beep. Others float. Emotionally…professionally…financially. Everything is “eh, we’ll deal with that in January” as if January is a wizard with free time and moral clarity. And then there are the rare people who let December be what it actually is: a reveal. Not a climax. Not a finale. A mirror.

December doesn’t end things. It shows you what you’ve been carrying all year and asks quietly whether you really want to keep carrying it forward. There’s something freeing about realizing you don’t need this month to be perfect for it to be useful. You don’t need to feel mystical. You don’t have to cry into your eggnog or find your “word for the year” like you’re in a corporate therapy circle. You can just notice.

• Notice how you move when no one is watching.

• Notice what irritates you when you’re not numb.

• Notice what feels forced and what feels natural.

• Notice how quiet gets loud if you don’t fill it.

This month isn’t broken. It’s not failing you. It’s just louder emotionally than the others, and if you’ve been running on fumes, it exposes the fumes. I’m trying not to fight that this year. Not dramatize it. Not pretend December is either a disaster or a miracle. It’s a season like any other…just less disguised. The circus aspect is real. The chaos is undeniable. But hiding inside it is clarity you don’t get when life is structured and loud. And pretending not to see it doesn’t make it go away. It just makes January heavier.

This month doesn’t ask you to fix your life. It asks you to actually see it. And for once, seeing it might be enough.

💡 December doesn’t require a grand takeaway. It doesn’t demand reinvention. It just gives you the rare chance to notice what your life sounds like without background noise. If you let it, this strange in-between month can show you what matters before another year tries to prove it for you.

#LeadWithLove #JJAllTheTime #DecemberCircus