The holidays are nearly here. Are you aiming to make them the best possible holidays ever? Did your blood pressure just go up?

It’s that time of year when people’s expectations skyrocket, and heaps of judgments start to take over. Lists of expenses get longer and pocketbooks get tighter, all the while hoping for the best possible time ever.

Of course the irony is, being tense about money, expectations, and holiday hustle and bustle isn’t the best possible time at all. Instead, it’s a great way to get stressed out and miss out on the joy that’s available. What if you can enjoy your life and love your business even during the holiday season?

Rather than bracing for restricted cash flow, resigning to extra stress, and dreading the aftermath to be dealt with in the New Year, give yourself the gift of some questions that will allow you to create joy-filled possibilities.

What else is available that I’ve not yet considered?

For any part of life, at any time of year, asking what else is available starts to clear away the stress and allows you to access new possibilities. Whatever you’ve chosen in the past, whether it was last year at this time or ten seconds ago, isn’t relevant.

What else is available now?

Asking isn’t about looking for solutions to a problem. You aren’t coming up with an answer. It’s about really being present and acknowledging that there are countless options, while allowing them to show up in unpredictable ways. It’s how to unlock your life and your business from everything you’ve defined and concluded as the way it should be or has to be, even with the pressures that can come up with the holidays.

Where am I making judgments and expectations greater than me?

How many people do you know who use this time of year as an opportunity to manipulate you into being or doing what they want or think you should? Whether it’s family, business partners, cultural traditions, or even your own points of view, wherever you’re allowing expectations and judgments to be an obstacle to your ease and joy is where you’re cutting yourself off from your greatness.

This isn’t about getting into the blame game. The only person responsible for your life, your joy, your success, or anything else, is you. When you acknowledge where you’re making anything greater than you, you have the freedom to choose something different.

Imagine how incredible your life, your business, and your holidays (or any time of year) can be without judgments and expectations dictating your experience. What if you never allowed anything or anyone to be greater than you ever again?

What feelings am I using to distract me from the joy I could be choosing?

If you’re worried about money, frustrated with travel plans, or feeling guilty because you want to avoid holiday obligations, are you leaving any room for joy?

Joy is not a feeling. Joy is being aware of who you truly are.

It’s the sense of you when you’re showing up for yourself and are 100% committed to having a life that truly works for you.

Are these feelings even yours?

Consider these questions:

• How much stress and anxiety is bouncing around this time of year?
• How much of that are you picking up?
• Are you duplicating the feelings that you’ve watched others choose your whole life?
• Is it time to return all of that to sender and to choose you instead?

Getting wrapped up in feelings is easy to do, especially during the holidays, but it separates us from our true joy. Money follows joy, so what if your money flows could actually increase during the holidays? What if your business was more successful than ever?

If you weren’t distracted by feelings, what else could you create?

What can I choose today to have the best possible day ever?

We put so much pressure on the holidays to be amazing, but we can create amazing each and every day of our lives. It’s a choice. What if every day was the best possible day?

Without defining what “best” is and deciding how it will look or concluding what it’ll be like, ask more questions! What would it take for this day, right now, to be the best possible? What would you have to choose to create that? Remember that there is always more available if you’re willing to ask.

What if you can enjoy your life and love your business throughout this season—and every day of the year?

Give yourself the gift of questions and unwrap the never ending gift of infinite possibilities.