Celebrating Successes - Even When You Think You Don’t Need To
Recently, I had a client achieve a career success. I was happy and excited, my client worked toward this goal diligently as we were mapping out how to achieve it, session by session. So, I asked ‘‘ And how will you celebrate this success?’’
Silence.
After some thought, the response was: ‘‘I didn’t really think about it’’. As a career coach, I've seen clients struggle to acknowledge and celebrate their success before. They often focus on their next goal, complain they have lack of time or admit they feel they haven’t done enough to deserve to celebrate.
While there can be many reasons lurking in the background, neglecting to celebrate your achievements can have negative consequences on your motivation, confidence, and overall well-being.
In this post, I will help you get into the habit of celebrating your achievement and we will explore why celebrating successes is important, even when you think you don't need to. We will also discuss common barriers that prevent people from celebrating their successes, and I will provide you with strategies for overcoming them.
Why Celebrating Successes is Important
Isn’t it great to reward yourself when you accomplish a goal? Let’s be clear from the start - celebrating success is crucial for building momentum and motivation.
When you acknowledge your achievements, you give yourself a sense of accomplishment and pride. This in turn boosts your morale. motivation and confidence, making you more likely to tackle challenges and strive for excellence. It’s positive reinforcement, and it goes deep to the subconscious level. Think of it as re-wiring your brain. As humans, even if we say we don’t need to be appreciated, we want to be. We need to be, and there is nothing wrong with that. Creating a sense of accomplishment is crucial. It is an integral part of your success journey.
Additionally, celebrating successes helps you develop a growth mindset. Taking the time to recognize what you accomplished, where you started from and mapping out your further path, fosters a sense of continuous learning and growth. This sense of learning and growth is essential for personal and professional development. You will feel satisfied with yourself, confident and capable of improvement and growth. Also, you will start being less fearful of tackling new ideas or other goals.
As you can see, celebrating successes has a range of positive effects:
Creating a sense of accomplishment and pride
Increase in confidence and self-respect
Boosting morale and motivation
Fostering a growth mindset
Promoting gratitude and reflection
Creating a cycle of continuos growth and learning
Decreasing fear of tackling new goals
With all being said, why do people then struggle to celebrate their achievement?
Common Barriers to Celebrating Successes
There are various reasons why people do not celebrate their achievement. Here are some reasons that I encountered with my clients:
Underestimating or forgetting the benefits of celebrating successes. Never understimate the power of celebrating every achievement you accomplish, because in the long run it does matter because negative consequences top up over time.
Fear of complacency. Some think that acknowledging achievements will make them complacent or lazy. However, the opposite is true -celebrating successes motivates an individual to work harder and strive for more (re-wiring the brain, remember?).
Self-limiting beliefs. Very common among professionals - believing that they are not worthy of recognition or celebration. You may have felt the same at some point - that your achievement is not big enough or that it is selfish of you to celebrate. Maybe you thought you haven’t done enough and you do not deserve to celebrate - or at least, not just yet! ‘‘There will be time for it when the BIG achievement comes.’’ I heard that a lot of times, and let me tell you, by the time that BIG achievement comes, you will lack motivation, suffer burn-out or give up on it entirely. Every achievement is significant, and every effort deserves recognition. The major task here is removing self-limiting beliefs and recognizing you are worthy, and your success, no matter how small or big - is worthy of celebration. The small successes will lead you to the BIG one, so take time to honor every step of the journey you take.
Not knowing how to celebrate OR not having who to celebrate with. Celebrating is and individual thing and depends on solely your preference. You can celebrate on your own or with someone from your support circle. No matter if making a party for 20 people, or having a solo wine night in the comfort of your home, there is a way to mark the ocassion. The possibilities are really limitless!
“Being proud of yourself is not arrogant; it is a sign of self-respect”
The Impact of Not Celebrating Successes
When you neglect to celebrate your successes, you can experience negative consequences. The negative consequences don’t show up immediately. They show up gradually, unsuspectfully and most likely subconsciously. Here are some negative effects that can crawl up on you, when you start neglecting your successes over a period of time:
Without a sense of accomplishment, you may start doubting yourself and your abilities. You may suffer from lack of confidence or even have a fear in trusting how capable you are. This usually causes mental blocks, anxiety and fear.
You may experience a lack of motivation, feel stuck in a rut, have a creative block or lack inspiration. The negative impacts can manifest in various ways and they can be very individual, depending on your background, personality and current life and carrer situation.
One of the less talked negative consequences is projecting onto others. I have seen clients saying they are not valued or not motivated, and blame it on their workplace, co-workers, employer or even family members. Take a step back and ask yourself ‘‘What have I done to celebrate my success first?’’. Sometimes it turns out that co-workes, family or friends did want to celebrate a success, but the client didn’t want to, had no time or came up with another excuse. You cannot expect anyone to celebrate your success if you said it’s not a big deal and brushed it off. Clear, direct communication, being assertive and changing your approach to your success is key. When you change your approach, the environment will change their approach as well.
Lastly, one extreme negative consequence of neglecting to celebrate successes is that it can lead to burnout, anxiety or depression. When you don't acknowledge your achievements, over time all the negative effects pile up and create deeply rooted negative emotions and patterns, like not feeling good enough or not being able to pursue any further goals which can lead to burnout and be accompanied by anxiety and/or depression even. This can result in needing to take time off and seek help or therapy. Though it sounds extreme, it happens more often than most would think.
Just like celebrating achievements has positive effects, not celebrating them has negative ones. Luckily, there are some simple strategies you can implement to take advantage of the benefits and set yourself up for success!
Strategies for Celebrating Successes
Now that you know why celebrating successes is important, why people don’t, and what are the positive and negative effects of celebrating your achievements - let’s talk about strategies to implement celebrating successes into your life!
Here are a few simple steps that will create that extra edge you need to propel you to success:
Understand WHY you are celebrating.
As we already talked about all the positive effects celebrating success will have - now all you need to do is acknowledge it and enjoy the moment. Realizing your success deserves to be celebrated is an important step in setting yourself up for a positive cycle of accomplishment-reward, that will not only create a sense of accomplishment, but foster your growth, keep your mind on further progress and ignite motivation.
Set aside TIME to reflect on your achievements.
Take the time to STOP and savor the moment. Decide on a time frame to celebrate your success. Do you need only a few minutes or would you rather have an evening for this? People often complain they don’t have time. You do have time. You just need to sort your priorities. Integrate a time to be mindful and grateful into your already busy schedule. Were you about to meet with your family or friends for dinner? Great - share your story and celebrate! No time to celebrate as you are working long hours for a project? Make your next coffe break more special or treat yourself to a home-spa after a long work day.
Decide on HOW you will reward yourself…
Celebrate your successes by treating yourself to something small but meaningful. Or maybe not so small? I would say most people will want to do something that falls into one of these categoreis: purchase, experience, encounter or activity. Here are some examples: purchasing a new book, visiting a new restaurant, going for a theme park trip, seeing a friend you haven’t seen in a while, going for bowling, writing in their success journal etc. How you will reward yourself also depends on whether you want to celebrate on your own or with other people. Which brings us to…
… And WHO will you share it with.
Sharing with family, friends, colleagues or a mentor is an important part of celebrating achievements. If you watched the movie ‘‘Into the Wild’’, one of the famous quotes says ‘‘Happiness is only real when shared’’. I would add that it needs to be shared with the right people. Surround yourself with people who will be happy for you, support you and will not bring down your achievement, no matter how small it is. If you have people who you fear to share your success with because they might laugh, make a joke out of it or even bring you down - these are not your people. Naturally, then it is better to celebrate on your own until you find your support circle. Also, those who are more on the introverted side may prefer to celebrate on their own - and that is perfectly fine! The point of celebrating your success is taking time to stop and enjoy what you accomplished before moving on to the next goal. How you do that is entirely up to you!
Write down your successes.
Write your successes down in a journal. Personally, I like having my clients write down their accomplishment, how they felt and how they celebrated it. Believe it or not, you will forget! Try to remember an accomplishment during May of 2022, and how it made you feel. Not so easy, right? Writing down is a great way to honor every effort you make towards your goals. Later on, you can go back and look at all the things you achieved and what it meant to you to reach those particular goals, at that time. Your success journal will help you identify patterns and areas for improvement, but also give you motivation and show you how much you have grown.
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. ”
What Can YOU Do For Yourself NOW?
What I suggest is taking a moment to reflect on how you have been treating your accomplishments and what you need to change to harvest the benefits of celebrating achievements! You are now equipped with more knowledge and practical suggestions than when you started reading this blog.
And if you just achieved a success - congratulations! Take time to stop and allow yourself to feel the sense of accomplishment before moving onto your next goal. It’s like reading a book, you need to finish one chapter before starting the next one. It works the same way with your successes. Once you have a success, take time to acknowledge it, feel the grattitude, the sense of growth and accomplishment, celebrate it and close that chapter. Then, it’s onto the next one!
After some time you will realize that your work-life balance has improved, your have ample motivation, your self-respect has grown and that you are actually enjoying the journey towards your goal. The growth mindset will become your reality.
All you need to do then is to keep going and see how far you can go!—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
At Ness Coaching, we learn about work-life balance, celebrating success, motivation and taking time to realize your worth and value in all of the Coaching Programs like The Game Changer: Unlocking Your Dream Career, Talk the Talk: Impressing With Your Words and Presence, It’s all About Balance:Mastering the Art of Work-Life Balance and Lead by Example: The Ultimate Leadership Coaching Program!
Additionally you can contact Coach Ness and inquire about personalized programs or even a group program for your team of managers. Ness Coaching is here for you! Don’t forget, your Discovery Session is free of charge!
Book a FREE Discovery Session now and start making positive impacts in your life today!