Celebration Time! (Sing it with me)

As entrepreneurs, we do amazing things every day.  Yet, we are so busy looking forward that we forget to celebrate.  

Celebration is fun and motivating.  It’s essential to recognize your efforts, celebrate your wins and cheer for yourself when you have a setback, struggle, or obstacle but still make progress. 

Yay, you!  

Yet as entrepreneurs, we are so focused on the next goal, solution, and task that we don’t celebrate.   We don’t stop to recognize the progress, the success, or the win.    

This is why I build celebration into everything.   I build celebration into my planning process, my accountability processes, and even into my daily process.  

 

Why don’t we celebrate?

As a parent of a child learning to walk, we don’t wait to encourage, cheer and celebrate until they can walk down the hall.  Instead, we cheer and celebrate every attempt, every fall, every wobble.  We encourage the child, and we celebrate their commitment.

Yet as an entrepreneur, we don’t celebrate or only celebrate significant events.   

When did we stop celebrating every small step, every attempt?  Why did we stop?

When did we stop celebrating ourselves when we had a small win?

When did we stop acknowledging the attempts? 

Perhaps we are so forward-focused, looking at the next goal or launch, that we never take the time to consider a win, regardless of how small.  

Or maybe we are so busy that we don’t take the time to celebrate.   

It could be that we don’t think it’s worth it.  There is always another goal or another step, and our job is never done, so why celebrate?  

Regardless of when or why we stopped, there are many reasons to make celebration part of your habits.  

Why Celebrate?

Although we don’t make it a habit to celebrate today, maybe it’s time we do.   Here are some benefits of celebrating.  

1. When we take the time to celebrate, we also get to make a note or reflect on what created that win—reinforcing what we need to do to create success. 
2. If you work with a team, celebration allows you to recognize members who have done amazing things, which can boost morale and increase appreciation.  
3. At the end of the day, the week, the month, or the quarter, checking in to celebrate can help you see your accomplishments, creating motivation and excitement for your business.  
4. Celebrations of our small wins remind us that consistent small steps create success and keep us moving forward when it is hard and when the goals seem far off.  
5. After a failure, a no, or a complaint, it can be challenging to keep going.  Celebrating when you get up and try again can be encouraging and motivating.  

Celebrating changes our physiology.  Spending ten seconds reviewing your achievements can improve your attitude and increase your energy. 

Improved attitude and increased energy are definite bonuses for an entrepreneur.  

How and when to celebrate.

In my planning workshops, I often mention setting up rewards.  In the workshops, we discuss possible rewards. 

A reward can be significant, like purchasing a trip or something you want.  But it can also be minor, like the ringing of a bell or a glass of wine.  

One recommendation I loved was to match the reward to what you are celebrating.  If you are celebrating something major, ensure the reward/celebration is major.  However, if you are celebrating smaller steps, keep the reward small.  

I mentioned earlier that I build celebration into everything.   Here is a sample of where I celebrate: 

• Accountability meetings: we start by asking everyone to share/celebrate a win. 
• Weekly goal check-in meetings: we start by sharing a good news item.  
• Planning workshops are started with celebrations, and I also start my own planning sessions with wins. 
• When I meet with my team, each meeting is started with good news.  
• At the end of every day, I document what I’m grateful for and what my wins are.  
• At the start of each week, I check in with what is going well or what went right.  

There are lots of opportunities to celebrate.  You only need to set the intention and build the process to celebrate.  

Celebrating our wins, even our small wins, motivates us, increases our energy, allows us to reinforce the right actions, and improves our attitude.  Celebrations show us that we are moving forward and can help keep us focused, especially when things are hard.  

Celebration is powerful, and I invite you to try it.  For the next 30 days, spend 5 minutes documenting your wins at the end of the day.  

Let us know how it goes!   

Do not be discouraged by the distance you still have to travel.  Instead, appreciate how many “life miles” you have already covered.  Your struggles have changed you into a stronger and better person. Don’t let anyone dissuade you from blooming into the person you are meant to be.  Keep walking.

Dolinsky

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