The Greatest Gift Revisited...

Posted on December 25, 2016 by Mark Myette, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

We wrap up another year and find our professional rock moved back to the bottom of the hill of annual targets, accomplishments and milestones. In other words, to begin anew. This time also affords us opportunity to review the attainment of those targets as well as process feedback, reflect, ponder and adjust. For many, this holiday season can also be a real challenge both personal and professional.

Some are not surrounded by large families. Some are experiencing the holidays without loved ones for the first time. Some are underemployed. Some unemployed. Some currently in a job feel professionally “typecast”.

Rewind to 1943…

The U.S. President was Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
The world’s largest office building, the Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
The United States is active in WW II.
Oklahoma opens on Broadway!
The Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC is dedicated.
The minimum wage was ~.30 per hour.
The population of the United States is 136.7 million.
The world population is under 2.5 billion.

In other words, the world was smaller and and some ways simpler. Yet, people were challenged! In some ways, not much different than today. In 1943, this dynamic was brought to life in a story entitled “The Greatest Gift” is a short story written by Philip Van Doren Stern which became the basis for the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946). The film was nominated for five Oscars and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made, placing number 11 on its initial 1998 greatest movie list and also placed number one on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time.

The story…

George Pratt, a man who is dissatisfied with his life, contemplates suicide. As he stands on a bridge on Christmas Eve 1943, he is approached by a strange, unpleasantly dressed but well-mannered man with a bag. The man strikes up a conversation, and George tells the man that he wishes he had never been born.

The man tells him that his wish has been granted and that he was never born. The man tells George that he should take the bag with him and pretend to be a door-to-door brush salesman if anyone addresses him.

George returns to his town, and discovers that no one knows him. His friends have taken different and often worse paths through life due to his absence. His little brother, whom he had saved from death in an ice-skating accident, perished without George to rescue him. George finds the woman he knows as his wife married to someone else. He offers her a complimentary upholstery brush, but he is forced to leave the house by her husband. Their son pretends to shoot him with a toy cap gun, and shouts, “You’re dead. Why won’t you die?”

George returns to the bridge and questions the strange man. The man explains that George wanted more when he had already been given the greatest gift of all: the gift of life. George digests the lesson and begs the man to return his life. The man agrees. George returns home and finds everything restored to normal. He hugs his wife and tells her that he thought he had lost her. She is confused. As he is about to explain, his hand bumps a brush on the sofa behind him. Without turning around, George knows the brush was the one he had presented to her earlier.

To today…

Today there are lot of George and Georgette Pratts – perhaps TOO many! Some of the indicators:

Depression, addiction and suicide are near epidemic proportions in certain demographic groups.
68% of employees are NOT engaged (i.e. Engaged employees are those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace.)
Our gross domestic product is averaging 1% since 2007…
People are living paycheck-to-paycheck.
What can we do?

Strive to become the RESTORED George/Georgette.
Understand YOU are a gift!
Appreciate WHO your are and WHAT you have!
Define your WHY!
Acknowledge what others around you bring to the table!
SIMPLIFY!

May the upcoming year be one of contentment, growth, and possibilities realized.

My best to your quest!

Mark

​I believe each of us is a gift. I create trusted relationships where individuals, teams and leaders NAME, CLAIM and AIM their gifts to achieve optimum performance.