Each year, starting in around October, my family is forced (by me) to watch hours upon hours of Christmas Movies. I generally ease them in gently with movies that aren’t overtly Christmassy like Home Alone, Love Actually and Gremlins (yep, it’s a Christmas movie), but as the holidays get closer, I ramp up the intensity. Starting around the week before Thanksgiving I’ll put National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on, and then Die Hard and The Holiday make appearances soon after. As December starts, I get into some of the funnier movies like Elf, and Seth Rogen’s destined to be classic The Night Before. In mid-December, I’m unabashedly listening to Christmas music 24/7, drinking eggnog with every meal, and consuming Hallmark movies to the tune of two a night! The classics like White Christmas, A Christmas Story and Miracle on 34th Street soon follow. But as it gets closer to the “big day”, I always seem to leave one movie for “last”. I’m not exactly sure why put off watching It’s a Wonderful Life until Christmas Eve, or even Christmas day, but I’m pretty sure it’s a similar reason that I always leave the best bite on my plate until the end of the meal. I want to SAVOR every bit of this classic and I want to be READY to soak it in when the time comes.

I’ve probably watched It’s a Wonderful Life over fifty times in my life….maybe more, and every time that I watch it I learn a new lesson or two that I try to apply to my life in the coming year. Here are ten lessons from the movie that I think that you can apply to your business in 2019.

Our Childhood (or Adult) Injuries Must Not Define Us

At the beginning of the movie, George Bailey jumps into Icy water to save his brother Harry from drowning. This amazing act of bravery results in George completely losing his hearing in one ear. Because he can’t hear out of that ear, George can’t serve in the military (a dream of his), and instead ends up going to going to college to study business. Had George gone to the military he would not have been able to help save the family bank from being taken over by the Scrooge-like Mr. Potter. In 2015 I had a series of panic and anxiety attacks that literally made me think that I was going insane. Over the next several months, I closed my business down completely due primarily to the shame and embarrassment of not being able to “hack it.” In early 2017, thanks to the encouragement of my amazing therapist Eddie, I overcame the fear and shame of this past injury and re-launched my coaching business full strength. My business is now fully recovered and moving forward with my life. My anxiety and panic no longer define me and I can use the lessons learned to help even more people.

Even Our Heroes Can Fail

As a young boy, George Bailey worked at Mr. Gowan’s drug store. In a defining scene in the movie, Mr. Gowan, visibly distraught (and probably drunk) after losing his own son in the war has inadvertently filled a prescription bottle with poison instead of medicine. George notices this as he is on his way to deliver the medicine and brings it back to the store just as Mr. Gowan is getting off the phone with the customer who is supposed to be getting the medicine. As he grabs and beats George for not delivering the medicine, he realizes that George has actually saved the customer’s life and embraces him in thankfulness and sorrow. Our heroes are not perfect. They struggle with the same challenges that we do. They are human, just like us. Be yourself. Accept your failings and keep moving forward.

Self Pity Blinds Us To The Truth

As George Bailey stands on the bridge contemplating suicide, he sees himself as nothing but an extreme failure. In his mind, he has ruined his father’s business, become an awful, tyrannical husband and father, and while his brother Harry has just come back from war with the Congressional Medal of Honor, he has nothing to show for his life. But in reality, it is George’s strong relationships with others that have, in-fact, kept him afloat. People LOVE George Bailey. He just has a hard time loving himself. It is this kind of self-pity that blinds us to the truth. We often times don’t realize just how important we are to others. No matter who you are, someone out there thinks you’re great and needs you in his or her life. You have accomplished much and will accomplish more. Keep moving forward.

If You Don’t Go To The Party, You Wont Meet The Pretty Girl

George returns from college the night of Harry’s big dance at the high school, but declines Harry’s offer to come along by saying “what do you mean and be bored to death?.” After a good talk with his Dad about the bank, and getting out of Bedford Falls he decides to go to the party after all. There he sees some old friends and one of them asks George to dance with his kid sister, Mary. After college, George returns to find Mary still waiting for him. They get married and have children and move into the old house that she used to love. How many times have you declined an invitation to a lunch, or dinner, or some other event that you didn’t think would be worth your while? You never know what you’re missing. Say “yes” more often to the invitation!

Make People A Priority

Shortly after they get married, George and Mary use their honeymoon money to bail out the savings and loan customers during a run on the bank. Helping each of their customers get the money that they need while literally taking themselves and the bank down to the last two dollars. Although George and Mary are planning grand adventures with the money, it’s clear to George that the only thing to do is to use his own money to help his customers. While those customers initially demand all of their own money from the bank, after they see that George is willing to help them, they help him by taking “just enough to tide them over until the bank reopens” We often get so focused on doing what’s best for ourselves that we lose sight of the opportunities we create when we help others. When we make people a priority, they return the favor and good things happen.

You Matter To People

I’ve always said that it’s a shame we can’t have our funerals before we die. It would be awesome to see the impact that we’ve made on peoples lives. But sadly, we are rarely given that opportunity. That night on the bridge, George believes that he is finished. But just as he’s about to jump he’s saved by a “second class angel” named Clarence who takes him on a dream like journey into a future where there is no George Bailey. George realizes throughout this journey that without his presence in Bedford Falls that it would be a much bleaker place, and that he really does have people who love him and care for him and people that he needs to be with in this world. That goes for you, too. You matter to people. You may not be able to see it, but without you, this world would be a much bleaker place.

No Man Is An Island

From the customers that help save the bank from being taken over by Potter to the Bert and Ernie setting up the old house for George and Mary’s first night in their new home and serenading them in the rain, to Sam Wainwright and the bank examiner coming through at the end of the movie to help George finally save the Building and Loan George was never really alone. True, he had isolated himself from others because he thought that he wasn’t loved, but they never left him. And in fact, he never really left them, either. We would all do well to realize that when we stick together and have faith in each other that we can flourish and live the lives that we’ve always imagined.

Simple Living Allows Us To See The Beauty All Around Us.

George’s friend Sam Wainwright is ambitious and dying to take George along with him on all of his business adventures, especially his plastic factory from which Sam eventually makes millions of dollars. While the pull of success is strong for George he chooses to stay in Bedford Falls and take care of the simple things in life: his business, his family and his community. It is through this simple living that George is actually saved. With some help from Clarence he is eventually able to see the beauty all around himself and learn to love the life that he HAS instead of always yearning for something greater. This simplicity is George’s saving grace. The ability to see that where we are right now is exactly where we need to be is so important. Be here, now.

There Is Always Enough

George’s greatest challenge is that he believes that there is never enough. Never enough money. Never enough time. Never enough travel. This scarcity causes him to nearly make a deal with Potter that will devastate not only the Building and Loan, but also George’s family and even his life. He doesn’t realize that if he just looks around and let’s go of his pride he will have all he ever wanted and more. As he does this near the end of the movie, he realizes that he truly is living a wonderful life; in fact he was all along. This is the challenge that we have in our own lives and businesses. We think that there isn’t enough to go around. We think that there is someplace better that we should be. We lack contentment. We believe that if someone is doing better than us then that means we are less. What if instead we could find faith and realize that there is always enough? What if we could truly be content with where we are right now?

Angels Are Real And They Live Among Us

Just as George is about to jump into the freezing water under the bridge, Clarence makes his grand appearance as a drowning man already in the water. George jumps into the water to save him without realizing that Clarence has actually been sent to save George himself. The journey that Clarence takes George on saves his life and changes his perspective on his situation helping him realize that it’s a wonderful life indeed. How many times have we been “saved” by seemingly coincidental meetings with people in our lives that help us see things differently. I believe that these people are angels and that we should always be on the lookout for people and experiences that help us change our perspective and live our best lives.