I wish you a very merry Christmas during this most wonderful time of the year!
If you’ve been keeping up with the Good Success 12 Days of Christmas Challenge, then you’ve probably heard more of my singing than you ever expected to, but I cannot help myself this time of year. A lot of people chuckle over my caroling, but the truth is that I just love Christmas. Everything about it, from the birth of our Savior to the longstanding holiday traditions just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
And, speaking of warm and fuzzy, one thing that I notice a lot of this time of year is a lot of commentary from people about the “right” types of gifts to give. I categorize these people in 4 ways:
- The “high-volume” givers (those who post pictures of their tree drowning in wrapped gifts)
- The “low-volume” givers (those who use those clever little rhymes to keep gifts at a minimum – “Something you want, something you need, something you wear, something to read,” etc.)
- The “no-volume” givers (those who post lots of memes and newspaper articles about how giving kids/friends/family members exciting experiences/memories is better than giving them physical presents)
- The “give-away” givers (those who focus their holiday giving outside their family, maybe by donating to missions work or contributing to digging wells or providing Christmas gifts for foster kids)
Now, I’m being a little humorous about this topic, but I firmly believe that 99 percent of these givers, regardless of category, have their hearts in the right place. The Christmas season brings out the joy of giving, however we derive that joy or define that giving, in us all. It made me start to think about how I define Good Success giving, and I came up with something that probably feels familiar:
Good Success giving means giving gifts that keep on giving.
You know, “be a conduit, not a bucket!” Every time you give a gift of your time or treasure or talent in a way that lasts long after your time or treasure or talent has left the building, you are giving a gift that keeps on giving. Good Success does this in a variety of ways, most of which are focused on our giving and pouring into our local community. Here are just a few of them:
- The Good Success Trunk or Treat Event
I was so proud of how our Good Success community came together to participate in our local community in a way that spread cheer and happiness while also creating a safe, positive environment in which local kids could enjoy trick-or-treating. Also, it was a barrel of laughs. Even better, we have heard from so many local businesses and residents that they want to do things like this in the future, so more and more people will now being pouring positivity into our local area with us!
- Make-Your-Day Wednesday
This past fall, our Good Success Mastermind members participated in a new event we created called “Make-Your-Day Wednesday,” and the results were overwhelming. Not only did Good Success founder Tom Olson (yep, me) personally contribute funds to this event, but local businesses and national mastermind members joined in. The ripple effects reached all the way into other states by the time we were done!
- The Good Success Holiday Challenges
The Good Success Thanksgiving Challenge and the Good Success 12 Days of Christmas Challenge are just the first two in our ongoing Good Success Challenge series that is designed to get everyone in the Good Success community, regardless of membership level, participating in the actions and thought processes that help create truly Good Success. Just in the Thanksgiving Challenge alone, we saw some really touching reconciliations, some incredible moments of grace and forgiveness, and some awesome and innovative ways of giving. The best way to be part of these challenges and also keep them growing is to follow us on Facebook to get notifications about new challenges and support for your current goals.
At Good Success, our goal is to always give gifts that keep on giving, which is why the 12 Days of Christmas Challenges run the gamut from the easy (pay it forward to the next guy in line at Starbucks) to the difficult (give the gift of forgiveness). I hope that no matter what type of giver you are, you enjoy both giving and receiving gifts that keep on giving this holiday season, and I wish you very, very merry Christmas!
