Celebrate your small triumphs as much as you celebrate your big ones.-Nancy Salmeron
This weekend I went through a pile of files that I needed to organize two years ago. Have you had this happen to you? It’s all the work you have done. Work you have collected from workshops, seminars presentations, awards or certificates. In these files, I discovered my accomplishments and my failures of the past two years. It was rewarding to see all my major triumphs, but also humbling to see the mistakes and failures I have made. As, I looked back I remember how my failures took so much of my time and energy to get over. But I don’t ever remember celebrating or giving the same amount of time to my triumphs. On your journey to your becoming you will make many mistakes, but you will also have accomplishments that may seem minor, but that need to be celebrated as big triumphs. This weekend I realized that my focus has been so much on my mistakes and setbacks that I rarely celebrated my well-deserved accomplishments. As you pursue your dreams, remember that failures and mistakes are part of the journey to the peak of the mountain, but don’t forget to celebrate the small accomplishments. What I want to talk about today is how to give your triumphs and successes more of the spot light. I want to show you how to celebrate the small steps forward more often and how to learn, but dwell less on the setbacks. Here are three tips on how to celebrate more of your triumphs and how to move past your failures at a faster rate.
Decide that you are worthy of celebrating yourself.
To feel worthy of a celebration comes with the notion that you are worthy. In the past I have felt that I was not worthy of celebrating any major accomplishment, therefore minor accomplishments were never noticed. Today, for example I will watch one hour of TV when I am done with this blog post. I will meet with a friend for coffee to celebrate a “potential” coaching client, or “potential,” speaking engagement. I celebrate even if the reward is, “potential.” As you focus on your grand success, don’t forget that you are worthy of celebrating the big ones, but also the small ones. Remember you work hard and you should reward yourself always.
Let failure take the back seat.
You will fail, but let failure take the back seat. As I look back at these past two years I have failed many times. I have failed and learned, but I have also given failure too much of my time and energy. I am not saying you should not give attention to your failure so that you can learn from it. But please don’t dwell on it. Learn the lesson and move on.
Let success be your copilot.
My biggest mistake has been that I have never let success be my copilot. Failure has been my copilot. Reflecting, I understand what a big mistake that is, because I took away my belief in myself, it made me doubt myself. What I do now is celebrate my success, no matter how small. For example, a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to share my Believe. Change. Become. program for girls to a school district. I did not get a definite yes, because the school year will be ending. I got a potential yes for the next school year. The truth is I felt like a winner regardless because I had the opportunity to share my program. This just fueled my passion for my program more. I celebrated myself for taking initiative to share it and was very happy for this small step. In the past I would have looked at my failure of not selling my program, today I celebrated that I have a program that will benefit many young girls in schools.
In conclusion, learn from your mistakes and move on, don’t stay there too long. Dedicate your time to rewarding yourself for your smallest successes and celebrate the big ones too! You are worthy of these celebrations and everything that is coming. Until next Monday Believe. Change. Become.