How often are you congratulated, or do you congratulate yourself? Do you leave celebrations for those annual big dates like birthdays or anniversaries? Can you only see ………
your contribution when you get that promotion, raise, new job or engagement?
What if you could celebrate every day and be better for doing that? What if celebration did not have to include food or alcohol? John C. Maxwell said, “Success is a series of small wins.”
Celebration can be any joyous diversion. Celebration reflects an attitude of gratitude and enjoying what we have. It is a celebration of who you are right now, not who you wish you could be. It helps with accepting, encouraging, and empowering yourself. You can celebrate who you are anytime or any place for any reason. Small things really do matter. Nothing is too small to make a difference. Everything, no matter how insignificant it may seem, really does have an impact. Simply celebrating makes you happy. Jack Canfield said, “Celebrate every win, no matter how small.” Small victories are anything you accomplish that aligns with your intentions.
I recently undertook a big personal project. I made a point of celebrating every small goal that I completed in it. I do not think I would have finished the project if I had not. Sometimes I celebrated the progress, sometimes it was that I did not give up. I even celebrated on the days I did self-care and took a day off from the project.
Celebrate on the results, not the task. You may not like cleaning your oven, the garage or even doing laundry, but you like the benefits and results. Be proud of who you are and the things you accomplish.
When we reward ourselves, we activate circuits in our brain, release pleasure-inducing biochemicals and we feel good, which certainly helps with motivation. Celebration produces happiness, gratitude, and confidence. Celebration is about achievement, importance, excitement and progress, no matter how much or how little. When you celebrate the small goals, you can leverage for bigger success. You acknowledge yourself.
People who celebrate the small victories have the benefits of better self-care, feel less stress, are more optimistic and have a greater sense of well-being. When you celebrate, you attract more positive energy into your life.
Celebrating yourself makes you more aware of life’s little moments and the celebrations of others. Pay your celebration forward by acknowledging other’s successes. Celebrate even if you didn’t win, because you learned, you experienced and you acted. Your celebration can be the equivalent of a touchdown dance, a cup of tea, a sound of excitement or sharing it with friends or family. Celebrating helps you monitor your achievements, which aids you in staying present in the moment and noticing how you experience the journey getting your goal. You do not have to wait for the end of the week, month, quarter, or year. Small wins can affect the way you feel and how you perform.
You develop habits when you celebrate and create rewards for your habits. Celebration is all around us
and can be a part of your daily gratitude or a part of winning your goals. You see celebration in fitness apps like Fitbit and the Apple Fitness app for goals. Celebration can be a sort of gamification. Celebration reminds you of why you have that goal. It shows that goals-setting and action work. If you are working with others, it motivates your team and unifies them in a positive outcome. Celebrating your progress helps you make note of your accomplishments so that it is easier to recall them when you need to do a status report, an annual review, ask for that raise or apply for that promotion or new job.
You find things to celebrate by taking your large goals and break them down to smaller, more achievable ones – a set of milestones to mark along the journey. Keep a celebration journal, just like a gratitude journal, to remember these small victories; It helps you feel better about how you spent your time because you see what you accomplished.
Ask yourself what you achieved today. Pre-plan your celebration days. Repeat a celebration mantra. Write down ways that another person’s success can be beneficial to you.
Sometimes celebration is as small as sleeping through the night in your own bed or as big as conquering a fear by finding the desire underneath it. Keep a “greatest achievements” list, like completing a presentation at work, beating your own set targets, training, and completing a fitness goal, organizing an event, mentoring someone and so on.
How should you celebrate? How do you want to celebrate – share it with your friends or family, treat yourself with self-care, take a break, write down your feelings, dance, give yourself a gift, make yourself certificates, get excited; whatever simple pleasure will give you that sense of accomplishment to motivate you onward. Notice your small wins – know what is important to you, stop for a minute and reflect, notice each small victory, get into the habit of having small goals, small habits and celebrating. Take your small goals and make them part of a larger goal. Give your goals a one-day break when you need to recharge. Reflect on the journey that got you where you are today. Put your successes where you can see them every day. Create a celebration pin board or collage. Tick something off your bucket list.
Celebrating helps you make a change. Give yourself that needed downtime, get a massage, say thank you when others compliment you, get dressed up, do something that makes you happy, buy yourself flowers, explore someplace new – there are any number of ways to celebrate, both large and small.
Celebrating your successes creates a motiving work environment, increases engagement and productivity, and helps a team work together. Share your success stories with your team. Get together socially to celebrate. Thank everyone who supported you. Say thank you to other’s success and praise someone in an email. It shows you pay attention to what people do with and for you. Celebrating shows you care and value your colleagues.
You can celebrate some of the simple things around you such as it is Friday, it is sunny out, your friendships, the book you are reading or when someone does something nice for you. The more you put out, the more you will receive in return. Displaying happiness for others brings some of that happiness into your own life.
Think celebrating all the time is bad? Are you scared that you might take your eyes off your bigger goal and start slacking? Think you must always be modest? Do you see celebrating as arrogant or a way to brag? Remember that celebrations are stress relievers and help us balance our emotions. The positivity that celebration engenders helps lower negativity. Celebrating our differences and our common interests helps to unite and educate us. Celebrating helps you get over self-criticism and perfectionism through changing the way you talk to yourself. When it comes to taking on a new habit, research shows that honoring each small success is key to lasting behavior change. The power of progress, of small achievements, is a fundamental human need. Celebrating even the smallest of wins will position you as a winner and will attract more success.
Progress on our goals makes us feel happier and more satisfied with life. You do not have to wait for when you achieve your overall end goals to be happy. Celebrate the small victories along the way and be happy now. Try this: say “I will (name a small goal for yourself) every single day for at least (the amount of time needed to achieve the goal). I will celebrate this habit by (name a chosen way of celebrating – something appropriate to the size of the goal).” This simple, small habit can lead to massive growth and happiness in your life. The power of small wins is that they allow you to focus not on figuring out the what is your next actionable step, but instead zoom straight to the how. Celebrating small wins can give you the boost you need to remember that you are enough, and you are not behind on your goals. If you do not start celebrating small wins, you are more likely to get discouraged, feel like nothing is changing, and give up altogether. That alone should be motivation to celebrate.
Ann Justi is a desire life coach, yoga therapist, author, and speaker. She helps people with desires and identities. You can get additional resources from her websites at yourdesiredlifecoaching.com or devotedyoga.net.