From shopping, cooking, wrapping, and year-end work projects, we all have enough to do this week. Oh, and don’t forget cookies for the neighbors! Or the attempts to organize a chaotic house into some sort of shape before the family get-together. Or the efforts to keep the peace between contentious Uncle Harry and our reactionary in-laws at said get-together.
So, this week I’ll offer just two simple steps that not only may help transform your Christmas get-togethers but also your family culture. Just two. That’s good news.
The bad news: we might have to hold up a mirror for a minute. Because before we can hope for peace on earth and goodwill toward men, we need to start with peace at home and goodwill toward our family members!
Those who regularly follow the blog (and I’m so grateful for you!) will know this statistic: Our research found that a whopping 95 percent of us have “kindness blindness.” Even for those of us who value kindness and positivity, these two scratchy truths apply, not just to contentious Uncle Harry, but to almost all of us:
- we value kindness but are more unkind than we think we are, and
- we often don’t see what matters to those who are most important to us
So, let’s flip the script on holiday get-togethers this year by being honest about what we’re bringing to the table. Instead of perpetuating an irritated, frustrated, vicious cycle — which none of us want to do! — we can trigger a virtuous cycle with these two little steps.
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