Holiday season is here, and the jolly spirit of Christmas is slowly seeping into our hearts and souls. There is something about the nip in the air, the arrival of winters and the general spirit of this season that indicates festivity and arrival of good times.
Christmas time also signals the impending arrival of the end of the year. And right before the year ends, we all get into a reflective mood, thinking and wondering about all the lessons we learnt through the year and all the things we need to do in the coming year.
Christmas time, we believe, is a perfect time for such reflection and consolidation of new learnings and lessons given that the Christmas spirit is itself replete with so many amazing life lessons and wisdom. As counselors and coaches, we love to draw lessons from our life and lived experiences, and Christmas offers a perfect opportunity for us to highlight a few quick but effective life hacks that this festive season has to offer.

1. Keep a jolly spirit

Christmasy as that phrase sounds, keeping a jolly spirit is not just about celebrations and festivities. Christmas is a reminder that your happiness comes from within and being jolly is a state of mind that is independent of external considerations. A jolly spirit is an antidote to life’s many stresses and is the foundation of our inbuilt resilience. Once we learn to extend the idea of being jolly from merely being a Christmas thing to an idea that governs our day to day life, we will see improvements in how we perceive our daily challenges and how innovatively we tackle them without buckling under duress. Keeping a jolly spirit is a learned skill that if honed consciously can become a powerful tool for our self-development and fulfillment. Jolly spirit is a Christmas hack that we must internalize for a happier, healthier, and more successful life.

2. Be generous

Simple, age-old and very effective, the adage of being generous is in no way limited to Christmas.But this time of the year is a great reminder that generosity is not just a human value or a moral lesson. It is actually a life hack that can drastically enhance the quality of our lives irrespective of whether we are at the giving end of it, or receiving. Being generous is all about compassion and empathy, two values that have now become recognized skills across board, including the rather professional realm of the corporate world. The generosity that we cultivate within our spirits doesn’t just make us a better human being, it also makes us a better professional, a compassionate leader, and a great learner. So, this Christmas, we must not only try to be more generous, but also try to invest in learning and honing this as a life hack and an essential skill.

3. Relish the moment

Christmas celebrations are all about having a good time in the moment, and forgetting all about the troubles that have gone by and the anxieties of the future that is yet to come. Indulging in festivities is a great way to take a break and give our weary souls some time to rest, recoup and re-energize. But more importantly, these festivities are a reminder that every moment that we are blessed within life is precious and worth being cherished. We rarely stop to savor the moments that are rushing by, too busy or too stressed or just too occupied to actually enjoy the things that we work so hard for. As coaches and counselors, we firmly believe that the quality of our professional and personal lives are intrinsically intertwined, which in turn is heavily dependent on the attitude we choose to have towards our life and its various challenges. Just living in the moment, relishing it to the greatest extent possible is perhaps the most important life hack that we can learn from Christmas, a tool and an attitude that is bound to enhance our happiness manifold not just this festive season, but for the rest of our lives.

The lessons that spirit of Christmas holds are manifold and may differ for us depending on our personal life experiences. The bottom line is that the festive season is a reminder for us all to value our life and the people in it as the precious gifts they are, and do our best to live every moment with grace, gratitude, generosity and unadulterated joy.