***Note: The regularly scheduled post on journaling will continue at its usual time tomorrow or Friday.  Until then, if you would like to read the series on journaling, you could start with Part One and then head to Part Two.

Every year during the holiday season, my family and I watch our favorite Christmas movies.  Our selection is pretty much based on which movies we happen to have on DVD, and those are tried and true oldies like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Love Actually, The Holiday, White Christmas, and the perennial favorite, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the animated version that Burl Ives narrates.  This past weekend, we watched a relative newcomer–Elf, starring Will Ferrell.

Buddy the Elf doesn't fit in at the North Pole, mainly because he is, well, human.  He sets off to find his real father in Manhattan, and in so doing spreads Christmas cheer throughout the jaded city.  Buddy manages to make even hardened ex-cons believe that there is a Santa.

I love this movie because it speaks to the power of believing.  Come to think of it, maybe the entire Christmas season speaks to the power of believing–that there is a Santa, that the days will grow longer and spring will come again, that a great spiritual teacher and savior was born, that miracles can and do happen.

When my two children were little, Christmas loomed large–for them and for me.  They had huge expectations to fulfill every year, which was mostly my part, because I'd bought into making Christmas a big deal.  There were cookies to bake, advent calendars to fill, events to attend and be part of–like the church Christmas pageant–and long, endless want lists to toys to buy.  It was exhausting.  I often marveled that year after year, Christmas happened, that mothers ran themselves ragged putting on this display.  I wondered if one year we'd all rebel and Christmas wouldn't happen.

But we never did, and I think that was because of the magic of believing.  We believed in the magic of Christmas and wanted to share that with our families.  We wanted our children to believe in Santa Claus, to believe in the miracle of Jesus's birth.  And so we continued on with our Christmas craziness.  All because of the nature of belief.

I thought about all of this again as I watched Elf last weekend.  And I started thinking about the magic of believing about things other than Christmas.  Such as:

What would your life looked like if you believed fervently that you were capable of creating the life you wanted?

What would you be doing right now if you believed fully and completely in yourself?

And here's the most important one:

What dream do you have for 2010 that could use a little magic of belief behind it?

Let's all help each other believe in ourselves next year, okay?  I plan to start by investing fully in the magic of Christmas over the next couple weeks.

**While you're in dreaming and believing mode, sign up for a free coaching session that can help guide you toward accomplishing your goals.  Go here for all the details–I've added dates in January!