If you are like my family, your house may be filling with holiday cheer. Our family loves the holiday season so we decorate the house, bake cookies for neighbors, and watch holiday movies. This year we watched a couple of different versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’. You know, the one with Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit?
While watching the Muppets version, I was struck with something about Bob Cratchit.
- Maybe it’s because this is where I am personally in life
- Maybe it’s because I see more people starting to make the efforts to become like this
- Maybe it’s because more of my Life Coaching clients are benefiting from these principals
- Or, maybe it’s because the world is deficient as a whole and could use more of this.
In any case here is what I learned and want to share with you. Bob Cratchit has lousy circumstances. Seriously lousy. Maybe you can relate to some of these.
His boss is a passionless tyrant, he is way underpaid, works over 60 hours a week, is verbally beat up and degraded by his boss, he has a large family that depends on him, and a son who has a potentially life-threatening disease. Those are lousy circumstances that would generally cause even the most positive-minded of us to possibly turn into negative, depressed, defeated individuals. These are the circumstances that lead so many people to overeat, mental and emotional struggles.
However, Bob Cratchit has an unbelievable, unending amount of optimism and a positive attitude. He did not let Scrooge’s personal issues defeat him or bring him down. He did his job the best he could. He was a role model for the other workers at his office. He was joyful and grateful for the things that he DID have.
He was not focused on the negative.
At his very humble Christmas feast, he even gave a toast to Scrooge, much to his wife’s surprise, for giving him a job and paying him so he could celebrate with his family. Wow.
Let’s Jump to the end. Although it was ultimately the ghosts that changed Scrooge’s outlook, it was in part due to the persistence and strength of Bob Cratchit who never quit!
In the end, because of his attitude, Cratchit’s circumstances changed; he received a raise, got better treatment from scrooge, was able to give his son the medical attention to save him, and his life was improved overall.
The Life Lessons from Bob Cratchit that we can adapt to our own, as I see them:
- Find the good and joy in everything, regardless of the circumstances.
- Don’t let the negativity of other people bring you down or change you
- Be massively grateful for everything, yes everything!
- Stay persistent in doing and living well
- Circumstances in life may change, but if you stay consistent to who you are, they will eventually bend in your favor
And most of all, BELIEVE!
