During the holidays, our thoughts often turn toward “home.”  Many of us plan to travel home or plan to receive those who return home.  Our minds fill with fond memories of home or of lofty aspirations of the homes we will make in the future.  Why?  Because “home” is that place to which we can always go for safety, for joy and for the support of good people.  Home is the place we go to get healed up before heading off to battle with forces outside our homes.  The holidays are one of the times we set aside to get this healing.  But to paraphrase an old TV ad for orange juice, home is not just for the holidays anymore.  Wouldn’t life be a lot better if you were at “home” all the time?

Why shouldn’t you be at “home” in your professional life?  Too many of us resign ourselves to the notion that our professional lives are part of the world from which we will seek shelter when we return home.  Our work is simply part of the “badness” that gives the “goodness” of home its meaning.  If work was supposed to be fun, we would call it “play,” right?  I know I used to happily refer to leaving work as “sliding off the dinosaur” as Fred Flintstone gleefully did when his employer’s work whistle signaled its permission to leave the quarry.  Too many of us accept professional dissatisfaction or downright hostility as an acceptable part of work life.  In the process, we give permission to employers everywhere to maintain an unsatisfactory status quo.  Don’t be someone who accepts less than you deserve.

Don’t give up seeking a place to which you can go home professionally.  You deserve to do work you think matters for people who think you matter.  Read that sentence out loud.  You deserve to do work that attracts you to it rather than drags you to it.  You deserve work for which you are so passionate that it gives you strength.  Some folks actually do work that makes them stronger rather than weaker as the day progresses.  You deserve work for which there is no ambiguity, no “maybe,” in your mind.  You deserve to believe so strongly in your work that you would defend it as you would your home.  You deserve to be at home when you are working. 

The most successful people among us have found this type of professional home.  It's no accident that these super-successful people cannot contain their enthusiasm when they speak of their work.  It is the very reason they are successful.  They have found the place in which they are free to develop and demonstrate their talents to the fullest extent.  Don’t stop searching until you find a place that you can call your professional home.

Why shouldn’t you be “at home” your personal life?  You should seek to surround yourself with the types of people every good home needs.  The people you should invite into your “home” are those who are as committed to your success as are you.  These people help you create the safety of home because you are free to be yourself around them.  You are free to strive around them because they will support your effort.  You are free to fail around them because when you fall, they will help you rise again without judgment.  With this type of support, you will be free to pursue the joy of success.

The world is full of people willing to support you if you are willing to offer the same support.  You deserve to have people in your life that are bringing love in some fashion.  In your home, you need equal parts tough love, those that tell you what you need to hear, and unconditional love, those that will be with you come what may. Unfortunately, there may be people who share your roof, your last name or even your bloodline who don’t fit the description above.  In order to build the home you deserve, you may have to limit your visits with them only to the holidays.  Don’t rest until all the people in your personal life are those that deserve to be in your home.    

Why shouldn’t you be “at home” even when you are alone?  Why shouldn’t you be able to provide some of that home-style healing to yourself?  Too often we can be our own worst enemy.  We can be so critical of ourselves that we sabotage our own path to the safety, joy and support that home provides.  So critical, in fact, that we block our own path to greatness before the world can even try.  If you cannot make a home in your mind your own positive thoughts, it becomes much more difficult to protect yourself from others who don’t have your best interests at heart.  Don’t forget to be your own best friend.

During the holidays, our thoughts naturally gravitate to home, wherever home is and however home is defined.  The holidays are a great time to get healed up so you can return to life's battles.  But remember "home" is not only for the holidays anymore.  You should seek to create a “home” every day of the year in every aspect of your life.