How, Why and When to Celebrate Yourself

Why celebrate? 3 good reasons: (1) Celebration is a way of honoring and appreciating the good things that come your way, (2) Celebration creates more of a good thing, and (3) Celebration makes life more fun!

If you’re not that good at celebration, there’s hope! According to Michael Hyatt in his podcast episode, “The Fine Art of Celebration,” celebration is a skill you can learn.

Why should you care about celebration? It’s all about programming that powerful computer in your head to work for you. Rewarding the behavior you want reinforces it in the brain, so the brain gets onboard with producing more of that desired behavior! This is true of your team’s brain, if you are a leader, and it is true of your own brain, as you work toward your heart’s desires.

Celebration can be hard for achiever-types. Slow downing down to celebrate feels a waste of time, a loss of momentum. Achievers can be so focused on the future that we forget to enjoy the present. All in all, celebration can seem costly and inefficient.

But celebration is important! If work is just a perpetual grind, teams become exhausted and lose morale. Celebrations reinforce achievement, so you experience more of them. In this way, celebration is an investment in future wins.

Some notes about celebrating as a leader:

-The leader celebrates his/her team as an act of humility.

-Celebrate achievements and personal contributions.

-Celebrations can include personal notes, public posts and recognition, events.

-Schedule celebrations. Plan them. Make them someone’s responsibility.

Celebrate Yourself!

Reinforce and perpetuate your own good behavior by using reward as an incentive to pull you forward toward a goal. Create stronger neural networks that compel you toward success after success by celebrating what you accomplish. A friend keeps a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator for spontaneous celebrations–which makes us look for reasons to celebrate–how fun!

I asked my Full Focus Planner Facebook group for ideas about rewarding oneself to celebrate achievement. Here is the wisdom they shared:

• Whatever is beautiful, useful or builds you.
• Rewards that reinforce the goal you just achieved, like…
• A Fitbit, physical training, special class.
• Scheduling time to appreciate your success, or to mark it in some way.
• Keep a happiness calendar for yourself and your family–a perpetual calendar that becomes a record.
• Take Wednesday off as a vacation day to go to a matinee on Broadway, or a movie.
• Find ways to give, especially associated with your achievement.
• What would you suggest to a loved one as a reward?
• Treat your reward as a commitment to self.
• Plan a date at a new restaurant.
• Something awesome enough that you look forward to it.