Christmas is a natural time of year to Zoom-Out. To step back and take a broader perspective on your life and the people in it.

We take stock of the year that has been, we think of absent friends and people that may be less fortunate than ourselves. We begin to look to the year ahead and what it may hold.

This content here will take your Zoom-Out skills to the next level to boost your wellbeing and performance this Christmas and beyond.

Charles Dickens and his classic story “A Christmas Carol” inspired this set of videos and exercises to help you Zoom-Out this Christmas with your friends, family or individually.

You can find the videos and exercises here.

You may also be interested in our very fun and festive Zoom-Out Christmas Carol Workshop.

Before Zooming-Out, let’s reflect on the times we may have become Zoomed-In on something unhelpful. What impact did it have? This is not to beat ourselves up about these instances. No, this is all about self-awareness – “knowing thyself”. By acknowledging these 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. 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?

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.

Christmas is a natural time of year to Zoom-Out on the people in and around us – to connect 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?

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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?

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