These festive Zoom-Out cards are inspired by the “Zoom-Out Christmas Carol” workshop, videos & exercises based on the classic Christmas story by Charles Dickens.
Simply refer to the card and read the accompanying narrative and reflective exercise instructions below.
If you’ve attended a workshop or done the exercises before, you can use this page as a reminder, to repeat each year. You can also share them with your friends and family to help them Zoom-Out too this Christmas.
Your Unhelpful Zoom-Ins?
Before Zooming-Out, let’s take some time to reflect on the times we may have become Zoomed-In on something unhelpful. Write them down. Consider:
Q. What may I have become Zoomed-In on that was not helpful? Something that consumed too much of my attention and negatively impacted my wellbeing and performance?
Q. What impact did it have and myself and others?
Note that this is not to beat ourselves up about these instances. No, this is all about self-awareness – “knowing thyself”. By acknowledging these situations we are better able to recognise when we are becoming Zoomed-In to our detriment in the future and thus being able to take steps to Zoom-Out to the benefit of ourselves and those around us.
Q. What things do you typically get unhelpfully Zoomed-In on? Money perhaps? Or bad news in the media? Aspects of your job you dislike? Something someone did? Something someone said?
Christmas Past
Evolution has built into us a negativity bias which has maximised our chances of survival and passing on our genes but at the expense of our happiness and effectiveness in other aspects of our lives. As a result, we tend to focus on and remember the failures and ‘negative’ events. This exercise aims to boost our self-esteem and sense of gratitude for our own achievements and the ‘positive’ events and people in our lives.
Take some time to write down your highlights of the year on a timeline from last Christmas to this one. Simply draw the timeline on a piece of paper or you can download and print this worksheet.
Social Circles
Christmas is a natural time of year to Zoom-Out on the people in our world – to connect with or reconnect.
Take some time to consider the people in your life.
Simply draw your concentric social circles on a piece of paper ) or you can download and print this worksheet). Inner circles represent people that are close to you, mentally & emotionally. Outer ones are less close.
Q. How close to you is each person at present?
Q. How close would you like them to be? Closer? Or further away?
Draw arrows to represent bringing people closer to you or moving them further away.
Q. What actions will you take to effect these changes?
As well as people, also consider clubs, groups and organisations. Who could you connect with or reach out to? Who can you help?
Past Present Future
At the end of A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge signifies his transformation by declaring:
“I will live in the past, present and future”
– Ebenezer Scrooge
Interpreted here as meaning:
Q. How will you learn from the past?
Q. How will you embrace the present?
Q. How will you shape the future?
More Christmas Cards…
You can discover more Zoom-Out Christmas cards here: