When Scrooge’s former partner, Jacob Marley, informs Scrooge on that eventful Christmas Eve that he’ll be visited by three spirits – the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future – Scrooge, of course, demurs.  “Thanks but no thanks” was his understandable response to his former partner’s unsettling revelation.  What normal person is looking to add discomfort and potential pain to his or her life?  Scrooge was comfortably living in a box of his own making with really thick – seemingly impenetrable – walls:  a pretty grim box – focused on accumulating money and devoid of human intimacy – but a box he’d built and felt quite at home in.  Well, fortunately for Ebenezer, he didn’t have a choice in the matter.  The indignity, the anxiety – the pain – that he experienced from these supernatural visits broke down his walls and enriched his life.  For Scrooge, the gain was well worth the pain.

 Every holiday season when I re-read Charles Dickens’ wonderful novella, “A Christmas Carol,” or watch the classic 1951 film version starring Alastair Sim, I’m reminded not only of how fortunate Ebenezer Scrooge was, but also how critical it is that I be willing endure the psychic pain that can lead to change and growth in my own life and career.  I don’t like discomfort and anxiety any more than anyone else, but as I look back, the most significant growth in my life has resulted from some kind of mental pain, even if in the mild form of a nagging dissatisfaction.  The challenge, especially in today’s feel-good culture where discomfort is often seen as a malady to be treated, is to avoid looking for some kind of escape from psychic pain, whether through alcohol, compulsive exercise – whatever nostrum you prefer.  Easier said than done, of course, but experience has taught me that it’s worth the effort to sit still, experience the pain, and see what it tells us about our need to change in some important way, personally or professionally. 

So one of the gifts I most want this holiday season is the courage and discipline to stick with whatever psychic discomfort and anxiety come my way in the year ahead and the wisdom to figure out how I can use the pain to enrich my life.