EP166 – A Very Quality Christmas Carol

Can you change the spirit of Christmas? Past, present, and future. #AdvancedQualityPrograms #TheQualityGuy #AChristmasCarol

A Christmas Carol begins on a cold, gloomy Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge’s business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old and greedy man, hates Christmas and refuses a dinner invitation from his nephew, Fred. He turns away two men asking for donations for the poor and reluctantly gives his overworked and underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to follow social expectations.

That night, Scrooge is visited by Marley’s ghost, who is chained and weighed down by the sins of greed and selfishness. Marley warns Scrooge that he can avoid a similar fate by learning from three spirits.

The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge back to his childhood, reminding him of happier times. Scrooge sees his lonely youth, his bond with his beloved sister Fan, and his time working for the kind-hearted Mr. Fezziwig. He also sees the sad moment when his fiancée, Belle, ends their relationship because of his obsession with wealth.

The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, shows Scrooge the joys of Christmas Day. He visits a busy market, a miner’s cottage, a lighthouse, and Fred’s Christmas party. The spirit also takes Scrooge to the Cratchit family’s simple feast, where he meets Tiny Tim, a sick child. The spirit warns Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die unless he changes his ways.

The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, takes Scrooge into the future. Scrooge sees his own death and the indifference of those around him. He sees the Cratchit family mourning Tiny Tim’s death. Horrified by what he sees, Scrooge promises to change his life.

Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning, a changed man. He donates generously to charity, sends a turkey to the Cratchits, and attends Fred’s party. He becomes a kind and generous employer, taking care of Tiny Tim. Scrooge embraces the spirit of Christmas and lives a life of kindness.

A Christmas Carol is a timeless story about redemption and the power of empathy. Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold and heartless man, is changed by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. By facing his past mistakes and imagining a bleak future, Scrooge learns the importance of kindness and generosity. However, that summary is a bit superficial. Let’s dive deeper to understand why.

The central character of the story, Scrooge, is a London-based businessman described as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!” He is settled in his old ways and doesn’t feel the need to change. Through the story, Dickens highlights the impact of experiencing pain as a motivator for positive change. It is a simple yet powerful narrative that focuses on Scrooge’s feelings of sadness, loneliness, and isolation, using these emotions to provoke transformation by reflecting on the consequences of his actions.

The Christmas spirits inspire him to make the necessary changes to improve his life by making him witness the impact of his behavior across all aspects of his life: physically, financially, emotionally, socially, and spiritually, all with adverse effects for him.

More than a Christmas story, this can be seen as an exercise that anyone can practice when closing a cycle, such as the end of a year or the completion of a project. While it may be challenging to create this experience at first, it can become a beneficial practice over time.

We can begin by identifying actions or recurring errors that hold us back or cause pain during the cycle we just went through. We can consider the consequences of continuing these behaviors and feel the full impact they have on different aspects of our lives. We can imagine their consequences on our physical body, what we’re losing, missing out on, and the pain they cause. We can reflect on how they affect our finances, self-esteem, confidence, energy levels, overall well-being, our role as a model for others, and our spiritual life.

We can imagine our future selves in 5, 10, or even 20 years if we don’t stop acting this way. We can feel the compounded pain and missed opportunities, dragging the weight of these consequences with us, growing heavier over time. We can reflect on what we’ve given up emotionally and the frustration we’ve experienced over the years due to our apathy and fear of change. We can consider the fears that held us back and the opportunities we missed.

Like Scrooge, this exercise helps us understand the urgency of making changes. If we can project enough pain through our future scenes, our minds will be inspired to change. This exercise motivates personal and group change and transformation by putting into perspective the decision to continue acting this way. People mostly live with the pain they are willing to tolerate. To commit to change, projecting unbearable pain might be a catalyst.

The good thing about this exercise is that, like Scrooge, we can wake up and realize that our future hasn’t happened yet. By projecting our actions, we can start creating a future with lighter and better perspectives. We can believe we can change our mindset, actions, and beliefs. We can feel grateful for the opportunity to avoid a negative future and let it inspire us to make changes.

We can come back to the present and realize that none of the negative future scenarios have happened yet. They don’t have to happen if we make changes now. As we return to today, we may feel more upright, breathe fully, and feel more alive. Our future selves are in our hands. By changing our actions, we change our results, experiences, and life. Our future selves will thank us.