Insight #58
Will Santa pay you a visit soon? If so, how will you react? With glee or with gravitas? Think back to the days when you still believed in the Tooth Fairy and in the Jolly Fat Man. Remember when? You do? Good. So, how did you react the day after their visits?
Believe it or not, how you reacted then was a clue to how you would react to surprises in your future. (Yes, yes, I know. Not even Freud ever made such a daft statement, but bare with me. Oops. Freudian slip. Better just bear with me.)
And guess what? How you react this week to the gifts bearing your name will also hint at how you are likely to respond to what awaits you in the coming year.
Play this game, and you will understand what I mean. Don’t rush into unwrapping. Instead, watch how other people around the tree approach their gifts. See if you can spot different approaches to gift unwrapping. (A bonus is that your excitement will build knowing your gifts still a-wait you.)
Here are four common approaches to the great unwrapping that I have noticed:
- A few of us are such control freaks that we fixate on the one outcome we want, the must-have gift, to the extent that we become visibly annoyed if we don’t have our way.
- Some of us are attached to the outcome we want and find it difficult to hide our disappointment.
- Others are so detached from an outcome that they live with passive acceptance and resignation of whatever happens.
- Then there are those who are open to outcome and receive graciously whatever is given.
Wait! There’s one more style, the real kicker approach:
- Only a few of us are in open anticipation of the outcome, visibly excited to engage with any surprise the universe may offer.
So tell me now, how will you approach your great unwrapping this time? And how will you approach the new year?
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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Quote of the Moment:
“This is the only time of year when ‘it’s a wrap’ means we’re ready to begin.” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
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