Your Favorite Christmas Spirit

It wouldn't be Christmastime without referring to the classic Christmas story: "A Christmas Carol." We all know Scrooge is visited by three spirits. One who represents, the past, one the present, and one the future. He learns something different from each one.

Each of us have within ourselves three liked-named selves: our past self, our present self, and our future self. And just like Scrooge, we can learn something from each of them and we get to choose which one we want in control.

The Spirit of Christmas Past shows Scrooge how his past has shaped him into his present self with his current thoughts, attitudes, and desires.

When we choose to live in and operate from our past self, we do the things we've always done. We are good at them, know how to do them and it is very comfortable, so we don't grow or progress much. We don't want to try new things. We don't notice the things that maybe aren't working well, or how they are affecting our current self. We may think things like "I've never done that before" or "I wouldn't even know how to begin that." We remain stuck in the same place.

It was important for Scrooge to see his past, but which Spirit do you think Scrooge learns the most from?

I think it is the Spirit of Christmas Future. By learning his future, he is able to see that if he continues with his current patterns, his future will be just as miserable as his current and past life.

Ideally, each of us will operate from our future-focused self. It's true that we don't yet know this person, but we get to decide who this person is and will be. We can make decisions from that future self place. I like to do this by asking myself "what can I do today that my future self will thank me for?"

In the movie "Elf" the character playing Santa can't get his sleigh to fly because of the lack of Christmas Spirit, and he says: “Christmas Spirit is about believing, not seeing.”

I think that applies here. Sometimes we think we need to see something to believe it's possible, but I'm telling you you can just believe in your future self right now. You’ve never seen this person before but that doesn’t mean she isn’t in there ready to be discovered. You have permission to just believe in whatever you want. You don’t need any past evidence.

It's up to you which Spirit of Christmas (AKA self) you want as your guide. If it's future-focused that is my specialty and I would love to help you uncover your awesome future self. You've got this.