the sales&marketing insider

“What’s So Valuable About THAT?”
Mood, Money, and Meaning during Christmas

To me, trampling fellow shoppers to save another $10 on a flat screen TV is not in the true spirit of Christmas. Even if the price tag has a smiley face, and the significantly over-nourished counter attendant is wearing a Santa hat.

This one scene contains the elements that Christmas forces us to ponder: mood, money and meaning. Yes, I just used the word “Christmas” instead of the very PC “Holidays”. The day signifies Christ’s birth, so the celebrant’s name is used for the day. Same reason we call it George Washington’s Birthday on – oddly enough – his birthday (although advertisers have used it to mean, “Get a great buy on bed linens!”).

Since I’m not adept at rewriting history, “Christmas” it is. So let’s change the mood. This time of year calls to our very core to “be of good cheer”. The embittered feel that this is fakey or insincere if you don’t really “feel” it. That’s great if the Grinch is your hero, but most neurologists would disagree.

The scientific community (many of whom are embarrassed to be in this editorial) contend that if you do smile, if you do utter affirmatively, if you do flood your mind with pleasant thoughts, the “pattern interrupt” redirects endorphins causing at least a tinge of euphoria. If those feelings are supported (by others, music, doing a pleasant chore) then the tinge becomes a mood. Thus giving the only credence you’ll ever hear to the phrase ‘Fake it til you make it’.

The corollary is also true, since bleakness fed is bleakness strengthened. Reminds me of Arthur Miller’s fine comment: “Some people brighten a room when they enter it; others when they leave.” So, without a hint of fakery or insincerity, I encourage and wish for you to be of good cheer. Beats the alternative.

Now for the real mood changer: money. Today this comprises 3 groups: the “haves”, the “have nots”, and the “haven’t quite paid for the haves yet”. The last two groups ain’t all that happy about their money situation. Been there.

However, years ago in my earlier quest to absorb every mental stimuli known as “self help” I remember that Robert Allen and Dr. Joe Vitale both alluded to a startling, very different way to view money that changed my perspective forever.

Before Hudson Ink was blessed with abundant business, I used to hear all about “creating wealth” and having a “wealth mindset”. Still others contended to “act as if you already had money”, which is fairly difficult since that would require actual money. Yet in all the affirmative, positive ways to influence money, the best – and semi-controversial stance – was by Allen and Vitale who suggested the following:

Think of money as a form of energy. Whether kilowatts, BTUs, gallons of fuel, or even water and nourishment for our bodies, the illustration of money as energy made sense to me.

It was no longer good or bad; it was how the user used it. Most think of money as a material component or “stuff that buys more stuff” which is limiting and damaging. This is also why trying to “get it” was as silly as bottling lightning.

Yet when considered as an energy for betterment, for freedom, for service to others, I could feel my stress-filled pursuit lessen… and the attraction beginning. Just like any energy, to connect you become a conduit, an attractant, and it flows.

Sorry if that sounds all metaphysical, and if you want to know more, corner me at some event sometime. For a short book you can devour on Christmas night, get As a Man Thinketh. If reading that doesn’t change your mindset and reduce your stress on the topic, I’ll buy the book for triple what you paid. (There’s a hint of the contained psychology in that statement alone.)

Lastly, what is the meaning of Christmas?

Can’t answer for you (can barely answer for me!) but I’m certain it has to do with giving. And in keeping with that “energy form” concept, this can mean giving your time, energy, and resources. Giving to those who don’t have, without expectation of repayment, keeps the energy moving in the right direction.

For us, we find that we can give away things that help in our small way, so we give away marketing tools. Yet instead of thinking that marketing is what we “sell” it’s really what we “do”. To elevate that slightly…

The result of what we do is to help you do more of what you like to do, which is gathering more leads that turn into more customers that drive more “energy” into your company, adding to your freedom, lowering your stress, and aiding your ability to share.

To that end, I offer the following:

www.hudsonink.com/christmas-wishes.aspx

May your mood, money, and meaning all increase according to your purpose. Merry Christmas.