Awaken Your Potential and Find Joy
I grew up watching 'A Christmas Carol,' scared of Ebenezer Scrooge and his overnight experience, anxiously awaiting the happy ending. This year, something new struck me. This holiday move is about so much more than the holiday.
It's about the real possibility that our future is ours to decide, regardless of our past or present.
Through three haunting visions, Scrooge faces what many fear: truly seeing ourselves.
The Ghost of Christmas Past reveals his journey from schoolboy to hardened businessman.
The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge how the Cratchit family, despite their poverty, overflow with what his money could never buy – love, gratitude, and pure joy in simple moments.
Then comes the punch: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come reveals his lonely death, unmourned and unloved.
Here's what I realized:
Scrooge's transformation is about letting go of his self-imposed guardrails to discover his potential for impact and happiness. With new awareness, Scrooge shifts from hardened survival to significance. [I wrote about success, happiness, and significance HERE.]
So much can change by the changes you decide to make for yourself.
Like Scrooge, we can:
Reconcile our past: it's what makes us uniquely equipped for success
Find joy in our present: it's always available if we choose to see it
Reverse engineer our future: everything was impossible until someone made it possible (as the possibility coach, I can walk you through the process.)
We all have choice, and with choice, we have personal agency to become more than we have yet to imagine.
The real work of life isn't in the dramatic moment of change.
It lives in the quiet, daily choices to remain intentional to that change – even when others doubt us or, worse, we doubt ourselves.
You don't need money or more stuff for joy, love, connection, or abundance.
You also don't need a nightmare to wake you up to the life you want.
Scrooge asks each ghost: Spirit, what do you want me to know right now?
You need the courage to see differently and the courage to choose differently.
The moment from the movie that still moves Tina (my childhood nickname) is Tiny Tim’s story.
Tiny Tim is sick and frail, and his father is distraught and unable to provide Tim with the lifesaving healthcare he needs. Yet through it all, Tim's spirit shines.
With Scrooge's new giving spirit, he provides access to healthcare and becomes a loving new "second father" to Tim. Corny as I write it... but it speaks to a real truth:
One act of kindness can ripple out to transform a life completely.
This is what we all hunger for most - genuine connection. We're all seeking to love and be loved.
When we open our hearts to that possibility, we don't just change our own world - we change each other's.
My favorite holiday classic is It’s A Wonderful Life. As the movie closes and the bell rings on the tree, you hear Clarence’s voice-over:
"Remember: No man is a failure who has friends."
So long to Bah-humbug. The awakening you've always dreamed of is yours to create.
🌲 Wishing you and your family a healthy and joyful holiday. 🌲
Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house were thoughts of family, love, kindness and new possibilities.
