If you didn’t already know, Christmas is coming. It’s pretty obvious, as toy companies, other corporations, and malls have already started the onslaught to separate people from their hard-earned money. That wouldn’t be such a hard thing to swallow if it’s December, but it’s not.
The campaign is often routine and brutal. The pressure to be a good partner, parent, brother, sister, cousin or friend is constantly applied as you are pushed back and forth to get people to buy the ‘perfect’ gift. In fact, as a result, many will spend to provide multiple ‘must have’ gifts. And with what effect? In addition to taking away from the enjoyment, many people have spent more than they can afford. The January period is well known as the period when credit card and mortgage payments are missed. Added to that, credit companies speed up their activity during this period also because they know that the hunger for loans is at an all time high. Hardly a recipe for happiness, right?
Christmas has become instant gratification. The need to make someone happy for a very short period. Why a short period? Because, as a society, we are becoming junkies. We need a constant solution to keep us entertained. We need more and more for our lives to be perfect. This solution usually goes hand in hand with the assumption that good gifts are expensive gifts. Too often, people follow this behavior and overextend themselves financially.
The result is that we strengthen this type of thinking with each passing year, and as such, we are increasingly dependent on credit to meet Christmas demand.
Many will miss the opportunity to buy their best Christmas present this year. that present? Chance. Unlike trying to feed instant gratification, how many have considered a gift that could help provide loved ones with the things they want without the heavy burden of debt? Such gifts can take many forms. These may include books on business skills, courses. The list is only limited by the buyer’s imagination. It’s a variation of the saying, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime. Such a gift could ignite that spark that leads a person to the life they have always dreamed of. What a great gift that could be if they never spent another Christmas worrying about money.
Modern life is very different from years ago. People are less constrained by their existing circumstances despite what they may think. They can reach the rest of the world through things like the Internet. As such, they can benefit from that easier access and take advantage of the opportunity it offers. It might be the perfect time to consider a gift of opportunity.