My wife, Roselyn and I were chatting yesterday, and she mentioned in passing that there seemed to be an effort by some people to remove Christmas out of Christmas. Since "Merry Xmas" didn't appear to catch-on “Merry Christmas” is now being supplant it with “Happy Holidays”.

Although there isn’t anything inherently wrong with wishing someone a “happy holiday” I do believe that we need to take a step back and consider what is happening here. In order to do this, we need to reflect upon what this season is all about.

Christmas isn’t just about presents, eating copious amounts of food and holidays. At its roots, Christmas is a Christian religious celebration that centres upon the birth of Jesus. It’s about God reaching down to man, not as a judge but out of love by sending his son as the saviour for the world. Whether you believe the above or not is irrelevant to the millions of people that have this conviction in their heart.

If we are to be respectful towards Christians then I believe we need to call this period what it is, Christmas. Similarly, to be respectful to Muslims we should not try and rename Ramadan to something else or the Hindu festival, Diwali, as the “Happy Light Show”.

This would suggest that to make the least offense the politically correct lobby should insist that everyone says, “Merry Christmas”. The question I began to ponder is why don’t they? I could almost guarantee that if we renamed Hannukkah to something else then the Jewish community would be appalled and there would rightly be a voice of protest.

The “success” industry is worth billions of dollars a year selling seminars, videos, books and the like. They peddle guaranteed instant success formulas that for some reason first require you to fork out your hard-earned cash. Most truly successful people don’t apply any of this snake-oil, so what is it that they’ve discovered?

Several years ago, I found myself on the platform at a conference being interviewed about what it takes to create a successful blog. It was at the height of the SEO (search engine optimisation) hysteria and as I looked across the audience, I could see they were hoping for some formula that would guarantee they would become successful.

Maybe I would say that I incorporated a particular number of hot keywords into articles or ensured that each one was of a particular length. This would provide them what they needed to become successful!

I turned to the moderator and asked, “Are you sure you want to know?”

“Yes,” came the reply.

I looked across the audience and said, “It’s incredibly easy to create a successful blog.”

By this time the moderator was getting a little impatient and asked, “Well, what’s the secret?”

“Write two to three articles a week for ten years.”

A groan could be heard across the auditorium and the moderator looked at me with a particular level of disappointment. This isn’t what anyone wanted to hear. They wanted to hear that with a wave of my hand I could turn them all into successful bloggers.

I was at a Christmas party the other night and was having a chat with a person when the conversation moved from the weather to, how have I maintained my strong marriage. The questions caused me to reflect upon what I’ve learned over the last 32 years and how simple decisions have contributed to my own wonderful relationship.

Learn about your spouse
Roselyn and I had been married for a few years and one night we decided to have a movie and munchies night at home. I rented  a video (remember doing that!) and picked up some chips and chocolate to enjoy together.

Upon arriving home, my wife looked downcast and said, “You know I don’t like Salt and Vinegar chips.”

I must admit that I was completely stunned at this comment but not for the reasons you may initially assume. You see, I was stunned because after all the time of dating, being engaged and now married for several years I had not paid attention to this simplest of thing about the most important person in the world to me.

It was then and there that I decided to learn everything I could about this incredible woman that had decided to live her life with me. In fact, we both decided to learn about each other and what we discovered was that our love grew exponentially in the process.

Taking responsibility for your own life rather than blame everyone else for your circumstances is quite a novel concept for some individuals. After all, why make sensible decisions when you can blame it on your employer, the government or family members?

My wife and I were watching the news the other day and “You’ve got to kidding me!” escaped from our lips several times. It seemed there was one article after another where people blamed everyone else for their situation.

The first was an automotive worker that was complaining because two years earlier the company he worked for had to close down production. He was complaining because since getting his generous pay-out he hadn’t been able to find a job with comparable conditions.

The reporter took the tack that the government should be doing something for this hard done by auto-worker. They even had a union official giving the guy a hug outside the closed down factory.

Let’s think about that for a minute. His previous company had CLOSED because it was unprofitable to do manufacturing in Australia due to the ridiculous benefits the workers received. Any company that offered comparable benefits would soon be out of business as well!

Essentially the auto-worker unions kept on demanding more and more until the car companies (they have all exited manufacturing from Australia) couldn't pay.....and you guessed it, they closed down. If the reporter was half decent they would have suggested the auto-workder demand reparations from the union rather than the government.

I find that everywhere I go I here hear from people who are stressed, anxious and feeling overwhelmed by the world around them. This is particularly true of the current generation who are constantly talk about being “stressed out”. Is there a solution to this pandemic of mental anguish? I think there is start anyway....

I will be the first to say that there is not a panacea that will fix every stressful situation but when I talk with people about their pain, there is quite often a few common threads. I hope that unpacking some of these will assist those of you that are stressed and put your feet on more solid ground.

Slow Down
Today’s world is nothing short of frenetic. If you’re a student, then the volume of material you need to learn seems to be ever increasing. If you’re at work, then the inbox never seems to get emptied.

No matter how many extra hours you spend trying to get your work done there always seems to be more just around the corner. There’s a saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.” If you’re good at your job, then guess what! We’ll load you up with more because you’re one of the few people that can get things done.

Many years ago, I found myself in this situation. I was literally working from about 7:30am until 2-3am, with a break for lunch and dinner. No matter hard I worked I couldn’t get through everything and the pace seemed to be relentless.

I shared about my miserable existence with a friend of mine and he gave me some great advice. If you get a good night’s sleep, then you’ll be more potent the next day. I thought the world would end if I didn’t put in my ridiculous hours but boy was I wrong.