What a Gift!

The dust has settled on the holiday season, and we’re already 2 weeks into the new year/new decade. If gift exchange is part of your holiday tradition, you may have received some thoughtful gifts, some meaningful gifts, maybe some things that you wanted. But did you get what you really need? You are the only one who can decide what that is, and you are the only one who can give it to yourself!

Here are just a few of the gifts you can give yourself:

• Time – life gets filled with busyness, commitments, activities and doing. This is your regular reminder that we are human beings not human doings! You can choose how to spend your time, including giving yourself fifteen minutes of quiet, open reflection time. If you get great ideas in the shower (quiet, open time) imagine what you could accomplish if you gave yourself the gift of time and set aside a few minutes a day for YOU!

• Relationships – the funny thing about relationships is that they require both people to be involved and they require intentionality. Relationships may start by accident, but they only get deeper when you invest in them. Research shows that more than any other factor, the quality of your relationships will sustain you throughout your life. We believe that people are treasures and you build wealth through relationships with great people. Give yourself the gift of relationship by deciding who you will be connecting with and when, and build a deeper relationship.

• Freedom – you have the ability to forgive yourself, accept yourself and decide the life you want to live. We live in a continuous improvement world where nothing is good enough. We blame, criticize and feel frustration rather than giving ourselves the gift of freedom. The past is behind you, the future is in front of you. You have the present to be free and create your life from the choices you make. Give yourself the gift of freedom.

• Learning – one of the most profound things we learned from John Kotter’s book Leading Change was in the chapter called Leadership and Lifelong Learning. He talks about how the value of learning actually compounds over time. Give yourself the gift of learning and you are making a lifelong investment that can never be taken away. No stock market plunge, Ponzi scheme swindler or financial difficulty can take this away from you. While financial investment is important, personal investment in learning will pay greater returns.

We hope that you take a moment, pick a gift (or two or four) and give it to yourself.