Jack's Holiday Message! | Jack Canfield

Hi there. And here we are in the last week of December. You know, December is such an interesting month. It's the last month of the year. I think it's a time to take stock of the previous year and think about and plan for the next year. It's also the month of winter solstice, the shortest day of the year as we round the corner of the cycle of light and dark and begin the journey back to more light and longer days, which started just a few days ago. And in the Northern hemisphere, where I live, it's also the season of winter, a season of spending more time indoors and perhaps more time inside ourselves. A time for introspection, for meditation, for contemplation, and for study. And for many, it's a time of holidays, or, as the root of the word implies, holy days. A time of sacred rituals, including Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. A time for family and friends and spiritual communities to come together to celebrate, exchange gifts and enjoy each other's company. Now, this year, those gatherings have been severely curtailed or interrupted by COVID 19. And yet the cycle of the seasons continues, and the deeper meaning of the holidays in this time of year still remains. And because we have more time to ourselves, there's a lot to think about now. This is a year when we in America and most places around the world have had to confront many things that we were not usually forced to look at. COVID 19 and the lockdowns. They're working from home. With all of its inconveniences and pressures, it forced us to look more closely at what's really important and what's not. It's as if Mother Nature has forced us all into a major timeout. We've been sent to our rooms to think about our relationship to nature and each other. We've had to look at the results of not living in harmony with nature and how we've created massive climate change that's resulted in unprecedented levels of drought and record heat waves, massive and out of control forest fires, powerfully destructive hurricanes, and unprecedented levels of flooding, which have all led to food shortages, higher death rates, dirtier air, massive migration, and the rise of authoritarianism and civil unrest all across the planet. In America and many other countries, we've also had to come to grips with the huge gaps in our social justice system, health care, education and opportunity, which are based on our conscious and our unconscious beliefs about race, religion, ethnicity, country of origin and gender. We've had to confront a political divide that has never been wider, more deeply felt and seemingly intractable. We've had to look at our fears and our prejudices and our biases and our conditioned beliefs and our unconscious programming in ways that perhaps we never have before. And many of us have had to face the most challenging economic conditions of our entire lifetimes due to the shutdowns and the lockdowns and the business disruptions caused by the pandemic. And unfortunately, many people have lost their jobs, their businesses, their homes and apartments. Some even have lost friends and family members. And some people are even losing their hope. And the number of people experiencing serious depression is way up, along with the consumption of alcohol and drugs. So it's not been an easy year for any of us. But the question that's always with us is this, what now? Where do we go from here? How do we proceed? I think the most important thing I can say in the midst of all this is the first. Remember that while there have been many challenges, you are still here. You're surviving, and many of you are still thriving. And now, more than ever, you have to take charge of your thinking and remember what to think about. Because what you think about is what you'll bring about. So choose to believe that it's going to get better. Choose to focus on what is good in your life. And every day take a few moments to be grateful for what you do have. And don't focus on so much on what you don't have. You know, clearly food and shelter are necessities you need, but most of you are watching this. You have all that focus on the little things that are positives in your life. Your friends, your family, your children, your pets. Music you can listen to. A sunny day or a day full of beautiful snowfall. The books you have to read, the shows you can watch, the games you have to play, the running water, the electricity. You've got an elevator in your building that works. Now I can remember being in Africa not too long ago where our room was on the fifth floor of a really small hotel in a very small village and the elevator was broken and we had to climb up five flights of stairs with all of our luggage the first time and then up and down there anytime we wanted to go and get something. It was a real trek. And then the mattress was on the floor and it wasn't a normal mattress, it was more like a blow up bubble and when you laid on it, it would all go down and your hips would touch the concrete on the floor underneath. And there were only two toilets and showers on the floor and virtually no hot Water. And the street outside was really noisy most of the night. Now, most of us take a lot of things for granted, but I want you to take the time to appreciate the little things that you do have. And here's an exercise you could do as soon as you finish watching this video. It's called a rampage of appreciation. And all you have to do is just walk around wherever you are right now, your home, your apartment, or your office, and appreciate everything your eyes fall upon. The floor, the carpet, your computer, your plants, books. And I want you to go deeper with each thing. And let me illustrate what I mean by that. I appreciate my computer, and I appreciate Steve Jobs, who started Apple, who created all this, and the guys at the Apple Store who taught me how to use my computer and taught me how to use Keynote and all the wonderful things that I do with that, and the fact that I have Keynote that I can create, slides that help put my speeches and all my talks that I do makes them more visible and visual and fun to look at, and the cartoons that I can throw up on the screen. I appreciate the plants that I have in my office. I appreciate the person who comes in once a week and waters those plants. I appreciate the carpeting I have on the floor. I appreciate the people who shaved the sheep and created the wool, brought that together, and the people who wove it into a carpet and the people who installed it, the woman who comes every week and cleans it. So I want you to go really deep like that. Everything you see, think about what you have and who helped bring it. Maybe there's food in your refrigerator. You can appreciate the fact that somebody grew that food, somebody packaged it, somebody carried it to the store where you bought it, someone put it on the shelves. All of that. Be really, really grateful. Most of us don't do that. So. So I suggest that you take some time the next week, and if you haven't done this, I also want you to do it after you do the appreciation. Take some time and visualize the life you want to live next year. Use your imagination to visualize the life you want to live. Unfortunately, most people use their imagination to imagine the worst outcomes. That's easy to do during a pandemic. What we call that is worrying. It's the same function of using your visualization, your capacity for imagination to focus on something bad instead of something good. Start practicing every day visualizing the things you want to experience in the coming year. And choose to believe it's possible to create that. Just choose it. It's a choice. Now let me also suggest that if you have a copy, take out my book the Success Principles and reread it over the next month. You know, my friend Bob Proctor rereads two books, the same two books at the beginning of every new year. He's been doing that for decades. The two books are Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles, the book the movie the Secret was based on. Now, these principles of success in all three of these books will get you into the right headspace for the coming year ahead. Now here's another suggestion. Use this time to recommit to your meditation practice and if you don't have one, start one. You can go online and find all kinds of resources, many of which are free, that will teach you how to meditate in the midst of all the chaos of the current world. It will help you create more peace and more harmony in your life. Finally, I've been posting videos all through the month of December and there are more to come during the month of January. They're all about how to bring 2020 to a successful end and start 2021 off correctly so that you can have a more successful and fulfilling year next year. Now you can access all of those on my YouTube channel and on my Facebook page. So I send you all of my best wishes for the positive rest of the year and and wishes for an amazing 2021. Now. If you found this video helpful, please make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one and for additional resources on how to complete this year and create an amazing next year. Make sure to visit jackhamfield.com and check out the links in the description below and let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks again for watching.