The Gift We Forget to Give Ourselves
The Power of Believing—Again
“Christmas isn’t a day. It’s a feeling.”
— Edna Ferber
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A brief schedule change for everyone who has grown accustomed to a Sunday morning Chasing Influence message. For the next two weeks, the message will be on Thursdays. Happy Holidays!
The Gift We Forget to Give Ourselves
Christmas has always been a holiday built on belief.
Belief that things can be made new. Belief that light still matters in the darkest part of the year. Belief that love, generosity, and goodness are worth leaning into, even if the world feels heavy.
For some, that belief is deeply rooted in faith and the story of Christ’s birth. For others, it shows up in different ways … traditions, family gatherings, old songs, candlelight, or the simple hope that tomorrow can be better than today.
But no matter how you experience it, Christmas asks something of all of us.
It asks us to believe.
We believe in people again.
We believe in reconciliation.
We believe in peace, goodwill, and second chances.
We believe that broken things can be repaired.
And maybe most powerfully, we believe the best is still possible.
That’s why this season feels different. We suspend cynicism for a moment. We loosen our grip on doubt. We allow ourselves—if only briefly—to imagine a world that’s kinder, more generous, and more hopeful than the one we must sometimes navigate.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about this year.
We’re really good at believing for others this time of year.
We believe in our kids. We believe in our teams. We believe in humanity. We believe in miracles, big or small.
But too often, we forget one important place to aim that belief: ourselves.
Somewhere along the way, many of us stopped believing we were still becoming. We stopped believing we could change and the next chapter could be better than the last.
Yet Christmas reminds us that belief is powerful precisely because it comes before proof; belief makes magic possible! So what if this year, amid all the giving, you gave yourself a different kind of gift? What if you gave yourself permission to believe again?
To believe you’re not done growing, that you still have something meaningful to offer, and the version of you that you’re becoming—no matter where you are in life—is worth investing in.
Christmas is more than celebrating hope—it is about practicing it.
And maybe the most personal, most lasting way to honor Christmas
is to give yourself one of the greatest gifts—to believe in yourself again.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
— Desmond Tutu
Connecting this quote to the story. Christmas invites us to notice light—hope, renewal, and possibility—even when life feels heavy, and ultimately challenges us to recognize that same light within ourselves.
This week’s Chasing Influence tip: Those who inspire the most belief in others are the ones who haven’t given up on themselves.