It has been a season of learning, unlearning, re-learning, and as always, it’s been a season for choosing. We’ve chosen to be careful. We’ve chosen to throw caution to the wind. We’ve chosen to be compassionate. We’ve chosen to be angry and spiteful.
“Freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin—inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night.” (John J. Geddes)
NO MATTER WHAT HOLIDAY YOU CELEBRATE, ALL OF US AT P2EXCELLENCE WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU A SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON AND A PEACEFUL AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!
I woke up today, picked up my phone and read, “Today choose gratitude and happiness.” And so I did. I began by thinking about how grateful I am to you and for you. I love words, and I am continuously grateful for your encouragement. Thank you for reading Tuesday’s.
And then I thought about how grateful I am for Shawn Anchor and his talk about happiness. His book The Happiness Advantage was published in 2011 and his Ted Talk came soon after. And it still – well – it still makes me happy! No person with a sibling can help but laugh about his sister, the unicorn. And no person who works in the world of Leadership should forget that focusing on gratitude and happiness makes us more productive, more innovative, more curious, and certainly healthier.
This Christmas season marks two full years since COVID-19 was first experienced in Wuhan, China. It has been a season of learning, unlearning, re-learning, and as always, it’s been a season for choosing. We’ve chosen to be careful. We’ve chosen to throw caution to the wind. We’ve chosen to be compassionate. We’ve chosen to be angry and spiteful. We’ve chosen to grieve and mourn and be depressed. We’ve chosen to take pleasure in small things and minor victories. Furthermore, we’ve learned about our systems – religious, government, work, and family systems. We’ve experienced their strengths and their very real weaknesses. We’ve celebrated anyway. Perhaps, if we have been lucky, we have learned what matters at the core of our lives.
Many things will never be the same. They are never the same after cataclysmic events. Life changed forever after every war – not just because there was tragedy, but because the tragedy changed the way we saw the world, for both good and bad. Some loss is simply loss. But there is also opportunity for the next wonderful thing – if we will just be curious and open. Experimental. Expectant. And hopeful. News media to the contrary, we live at a better time than any generation before us. And our children will live in a better time than we will. We probably don’t/won’t appreciate it – it’s our nature to look at the gap and not the gain. But that’s a choice.
Hanukkah celebrates and reaffirms the ideals of Judaism, reminds us of the victory over the Maccabees. Candle oil for one day lasted eight. A miracle. A miracle of hope, of tradition, of knowing it will be okay. Advent celebrates the preparation for the coming of Jesus. The waiting time. The time of believing that the best is coming, even though it doesn’t seem like it. Light shining in the dark. The candle still burning – maybe just for today – but still burning when hope and faith are hard to come by.
Today, I choose happy. A deep-seated happiness that comes from knowing that we are more blessed than we know, we are more gifted and capable than we behave, and we are wise beyond our imagining.
To that end, I wish you the happiest of holidays. Next year we will be smarter, we will solve big problems, we will encourage those around us. And we will believe in the goodness of ourselves, of our country, and our world. We will not quit. We will choose happy.
PS: I simply must share that a client recently told a story about a psychologist who wrote that we should think about one stupid, irritating, solvable thing every week and simply fix it. Isn’t this a remarkable idea?
The example was a drawer that sticks every time you try to open it. Or sheets that don’t quite fit the bed. Imagine fixing 52 irritants in your life this coming year? Imagine – not just the fixing, but the strengthening of our/your “fixing muscle”, of confidence, of action orientation, of laughing about why you waited so long?
Just imagine how your mindset would shift? I think it’s pretty amazing. I plan to make this happen in my life, and I hope you will do the same!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
