What if every day was Christmas?

We get Christmas totally backwards. I say we flip it. We have Christmas every day of the year and dedicate a single day every year that isn’t.

I’m writing this one on December 26th, 2020. I’ve had this thought I can’t shake the last few days; what if instead of having Christmas one day per year we instead did the opposite? And no, I’m not suggesting we buy gifts every day. I am suggesting as a society, we all agreed every day we would spread joy, be kind to each other, agreed to disagree on our differences and celebrated our commonalities as human beings, and decided intentionally we would have only one day a year where we didn’t? Kind of like the purge. What would happen?

We would all treat each other better

One of the foremost values of Christmas is how we treat each other with more compassion and empathy. Can you imagine if each day we thought of everyone else before ourselves? If we put an intentional focus on spreading joy, turning the other cheek, forgiving, and forgetting, and making amends. It would pretty much solve most all our problems related to relationships. Christmas time seems to be the time when we focus less on what others have done to us and we shift our focus to what we can do for others. This mindset shift is a key to fulfillment and happiness.

Even if it’s a false sense of joy and people are pretending, it’s still a net positive because of the end result, which is less conflict and more solidarity. Sometimes you have to fake it till you make it and that’s ok. The “Christmas spirit” doesn’t just happen due to the weather. It happens because we make it happen. This is how every state of mind works, we chose it. What we focus on becomes our reality.

We would prioritize family

I value success, making money, and being productive but not at the expense of letting a day go by that I don’t’ connect with my wife and daughter. I think as a society, there is an imbalance between work and family. A lot of families go through each day barely seeing each other. Even with 2 full time working parents or being a single parent, there should always be time spent with family.

It surprises me how many people brag about working 50–60 hour weeks. How many times a company will reward employees for the double-overtime they worked. I can’t help but feel sad for them and wonder if their families could’ve used that time. We don’t have a productivity deficit in America. We have a family deficit.

What would happen if parents made an intentional decision to be apart of their kids’ lives every day? Parents shouldn’t have to wonder what’s going on in their lives. You can’t maintain a healthy relationship with someone you barely see or talk to. Every day I say there should be dedicated time for family to get together. Even if it’s just an hour or two. It will time well spent that compounds interest into better relationships, fulfillment, and happiness.
Focus on what really matters.

I believe that the emphasis on success and work over everything else is contributing to a pandemic of unhappiness in America. Suicide rates are rising in the U.S. but falling in other countries.
According to the American Psychological Association,

“suicide rates in the United States have increased 30% since the year 2000”.

On Christmas, we just kind of, let go of everything that’s not important to us. We take a breath from normal life and pause or reflect. It’s a time of joy, forgiving others, and just being a nicer all-around person. It’s no accident that when you pass strangers around the holidays you get more smiles and season greetings. Our everyday interactions with co-workers are often more positive and uplifting as well.
This is because treating others kindly is a fundamental value of being human. We all know it’s the right thing to do and when we do it, it feels great. Especially when they might not “deserve” it in our minds. But nobody should have to ever earn kindness or love. They should receive it, not for anything they’ve done to earn it, but because they are a human being.
I can’t give you a reason why we loved our daughter before we ever met her. She never did anything to earn it. We would give our lives for someone we’ve never met for no other reason than she’s our child. It’s the same with treating others with kindness and love all year round. It’s not about what they’ve done to deserve it. It’s the right thing to do because we are all human beings.

But is this realistic?

Absolutely it is. I’m not saying it would be easy. But like anything, it’s possible if you take action every day. If we can all agree to be a certain way one day out of the year, there are zero reasons we can’t all agree to be that way the next day, and the next day, and so on every day. I’m a realist, I know the masses aren’t going all go along with it. But even if one out of 5 people did, that would roughly be 72 million people just in the United States all focusing on being better humans. What a difference that could make.

Maybe that’s still too many to be realistic. Let’s talk about just one person. If a single person worked on spreading joy and just being all-around nicer next year, how many positive chain reactions would they set off? How many others would be affected by the actions of a single person?

My challenge to you

try to make every day in 2021 like it were Christmas. Take one day out of the year and make that the day where you focus on negativity, gripe about politics, alienate others who disagree with your opinion, and hold bitterness towards others. The rest of the year, be friendly to strangers, prioritize spending time with family, agree to forgive and forget, do something for someone else, make amends. What would happen? Most of our problems would be gone or at least diminished, and the world would be a happier place.

If this was valuable for you, please consider sharing with your network. It really helps this newsletter grow and seeing the numbers climb every week is very motivating for me to continue writing it.

have a great week!

Sources
By the numbers: An alarming rise in suicide (apa.org)