The holidays are here. Thanksgiving is next week, and then we'll blink, and it will be Christmas, with New Year's right behind. Along with the happiness and joy, it seems every holiday brings a unique pressure to cause us over or under react. Thanksgiving is all about the food - and yet is it not the holiday where we seem to always over eat? Christmas seems to be a constant game of guessing. Who to buy for? What is too much? What is too little? Who did I forget? Then New Year's Eve offers a whole new level of ways to overindulge. It also seems to be a weird time of year for work. Why are the most complex projects always started (or amped up) during the last two months of the year? Deadlines in the midst of all the days off just makes everything seem that much more intense. We won't even talk about the relationship dynamics that escalate when families and friends are brought together. The pressure created by the holidays is real, and it's not going away. So how can we make it through with our sanity and waistline intact? Last week, one of my fellow coaches and I gathered a new coaching group together to prepare for the start of the group sessions in the new year. In that session, we offered some guidance for building mental tools - so that we react just right, not over and not under -  during the holidays. When I ...