For anybody who’s been paying attention, especially in New York, it’s been hard to miss Macy’s “A million reasons to believe” campaign. The word “Believe” is emblazoned across their signature red bags and the ‘i’ is dotted with a star. It kicked off with a full-page newspaper ad with the famous letter Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to the editor of The New York Sun in 1897 with the blaring headline, “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.”

The editor, in response to 8-year-old Virginia’s question about whether Santa exists because her friends said he doesn’t, writes, “They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.” Later he writes how dreary it would be without Santa Claus, “There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.”

I write this not to jar your faith in Santa Claus so much as to nudge you to believe in yourselves and the people in your life as we continue to live among newscasts and headlines screaming of more layoffs and foreclosures. There are possibilities all around us, but they require that we pay attention, be open and take steps. That’s pretty hard for some people to do for a myriad of reasons, but there’s one that’s stuck in my craw.

As a life coach, I marvel at the amount of adults who actually know what they want to do with their lives but don’t want to disappoint loved ones, especially parents. So they stick with something that doesn’t inspire them, hardly taps into their gifts, and makes them feel as if their days are running together. They have a hard time believing in themselves and their ability to make a career path for which they were destined actually happen because someone told them otherwise.

Do you recognize yourself here? On either side of the scenario?

Because if you are, for example, a parent who has imposed your opinion and helped squash your child’s dream, perhaps the greatest gift you could give them this holiday season is a change of heart. And I’m not just talking about your teenager who’s trying to plan a college curriculum or your 5-year-old who wants to be a veterinarian. I’m talking about your adult child who is still afraid of disappointing you because the expectation is that he will spend his life working in the family business. Or the daughter who really wants to teach fourth grade, but has been cajoled into some job in a cubicle because the money is better.

Maybe you’re the son or daughter I’m talking about here. In the last six months alone, I have had two people afraid to pull the trigger on the career (and the life) they knew they wanted because they didn’t want to disappoint their parents. One client was in her 40s and the other in his 20s.

There’s a good chance all of this has surfaced for me because I watched the legendary Liza Minnelli commandeer The Palace in a show called “Liza’s at the Palace” on Tuesday night. She is the product of famous parents – for whatever problems existed – and a doting godmother who encouraged the heck out of a little girl who showed star potential very early on. I cannot for the life of me imagine containing the energy I saw on that stage. Even at 62, Minnelli is a sensational force.

What that kind of encouragement, that kind of belief, breeds is a person who pays it forward instinctively because that is what she knows. Minnelli told the story onstage of going to get a bite to eat one day about 17 years ago and hearing a pianist that actually made her put down her fork and investigate. She described the moment as hearing someone who captured the same feelings in a song that she feels when she sings. The musician was Billy Stritch and that very night Minnelli asked him to be her music director.

Tuesday night he was front and center with his piano and throughout the show she smiled at him and deadpanned, “We’re at The Palace!” Everyone laughed, every time, because it was such shared triumph and there was so much context to the relationship.

What about you? Are you taking any steps to put yourself out there or to be doing what you really want to do? Are you encouraging loved ones to do the same?

The key to the Virginia O’Hanlon story is that her father encouraged her to write to the newspaper and to trust its truth. The editor’s words, even now, sparkle.

“Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond,” he wrote.

If you can’t muster belief in magic, at least be mindful that your words can help others believe in themselves this holiday season and beyond.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.