CELEBRATING SUCCESS
What’s the first thing you think about doing when you’ve achieved a win, be it little like getting to work on time, or big like scoring a promotion? For most people the celebration comes in the form of reaching for the biscuit tin, or pouring a glass of fizz. Celebrating successes with food and drink is something that is programmed into us almost from birth. Been good at the doctors? Have a lollipop. Got good grades? Let’s go out for pizza. Survived that long, long business meeting? Unwrap a chocolate bar. That’s not to say that all celebrations shouldn’t come with a dollop of tastiness, after all what’s celebrating another year of living without a birthday cake? But looking at different ways of celebrating can produce dramatically different results.
I first became mindful about celebrating personal successes when I was working with my business coach (Sophie Clyde Smith), as it became painfully obvious that I was incredibly bad at it myself. Firstly, I wasn’t doing it. I wasn’t acknowledging my wins and positive behaviours. And secondly, when I did start to recognise them, I felt awkward celebrating them. I stuck with it and having experienced the transformational benefits of celebrating successes, it is something I bang on about endlessly with my clients. No matter how small they may feel, celebrating positive behaviours and habits only increases the motivation and desire to be consistent with them and small wins often lead to big changes. It also teaches us how to be nice to ourselves, something I’ve noticed doesn’t come naturally to a lot of clients, despite delivering the biggest long term benefits of all.
The way you celebrate will be personal to you and may differ depending on the situation, environment, time of day etc but it is important to take a minute to tune into and acknowledge the feeling this brings. These celebrations don’t have to be huge and expensive, they can literally be saying well done to yourself, giving yourself a pat on the back, smiling to yourself, doing a celebratory dance, messaging your accountability partner/friend/partner/family member etc.
So how can you encourage yourself to celebrate in ways that don’t automatically begin with food and drink? For example, how might you celebrate the little wins such as being consistent with habits that you want to implement on a daily basis e.g. drinking at least 2 litres water, waking up 15 minutes earlier to move your body, eating 1 more portion of vegetables, eating your meals at the table rather than in front of the TV?
Some examples my clients have loved and found fundamentally helpful throughout our work together include:
Giving yourself a high five in the mirror (Mel Robbins has written two great books called The High Five Habit and the 5 Second Rule about the power of this)
Sharing what they achieved with their partner
Writing their successes down at the end of the day
Dancing and singing around the house
Smiling big
Thinking or saying well done to themselves
Clenching their fists and saying ‘yes!’
If none of those appeal, James Clear, who wrote Atomic Habits, and BJ Fogg, who wrote Tiny Habits (excellent books if you’re interested in building healthy habits and stopping unhelpful ones) include 100 different ways you can celebrate if you’re in need of further inspiration.
When people hear the word change, it sometimes brings up feelings of fear. But if you’re proud of an achievement, whatever its size, personally I can’t think of a better reward than to smile and whisper to myself, well done.
