Success Is in Your Hands
Your first workout in your plan to increase your endurance. Handing in the quarterly sales report. Making your first batch of handmade pasta. Flossing daily for the past week. Leading a workshop for your team. Planting your herb garden. Relaunching your course. Reaching your new savings goal. Going to bed “on time.” Having a family dinner.
No matter how small or big the success, it’s important to honor yourself and the accomplishment. If you want to have more success, honoring it when it shows up is an integral step forward.
Take a moment to think about a time when you were celebrated for something that you did and/or you celebrated yourself for something you achieved. Close your eyes for a moment and try to take yourself back to that place and time.
Can you remember how it felt? Was your energy high? Did you feel better than normal? Do you remember if other things seemed to flow a bit more easily at that time, as well? Was there a sense of well being? Perhaps you felt more empowered?
None of us want to limit our success, yet a sure way that we do just that is by not celebrating and validating the successes we have already achieved. And that's what many of us do. We either don’t take the time to celebrate the successes or we make light of them or we rush on to the next thing, not savoring and honoring what we have done. This is a way that we limit our own success.
No matter how you come at this, whether you believe in the law of attraction or magnetization or like attracts like or priming, or the science behind what celebrating success does in our brains and bodies, there is evidence all around us that by taking the time to celebrate mindfully when we have accomplished something, we are more likely to keep making good things happen.
There is no success that is too small to celebrate. In fact, it is in the continual celebration of our small successes that the habit comes to stick with us. We celebrate the small things daily over and over again and we train our brain to keep doing the things that are good for us; the things that lead to success.
If you have done something that makes you feel even a little bit proud, happy, or excited you have succeeded and you owe it to yourself to celebrate that.
And by “celebrate,” I don’t mean that you need to have a parade for every little success. Even taking a minute to mindfully stop and say to yourself, “Good job! You just did that,” and to recognize the feelings in your body is perfect. You are encoding a job well done and priming yourself for more of the same.
When you have those big successes (you get to define what those are) do take even more time to celebrate, have the parade, reward yourself, have a party, or whatever works for you to encode that you just accomplished something that is important and matters to you.
So, if you want more success in your life, take the time to celebrate what you are already successful at. It is amazing what a tiny practice of celebration and gratitude, done over and over again, will allow into your life. Your celebration is a clear “yes!” to yourself and the universe that you are working towards the successes, small and large, and open to even more.
Have you celebrated your successes lately? In what ways?
If you find that you’re having trouble thinking of a success I guarantee you that you had at least one success yesterday. It may have been a tiny success. Perhaps you ate three meals yesterday instead of the one or two you have been shoveling in when you make time for it? Maybe you took a five-minute walk around your block? Perhaps you got up closer to what is “on time” for you? Maybe you wrote 100 words instead of none?
Remember, celebrating the small successes is what prepares us for making more of them happen in our lives and helps us build up to the larger successes. It all matters and it is all good.
If you’ve been celebrating your successes, nice job, and keep it up!!
If you are like most of us and know that taking a bit more time to honor what you have done is needed, ask yourself these questions:
What is one thing I can celebrate right now in this moment? (Then take the time to celebrate it.)
What is one thing, no matter how small, that I will do today that I can be proud of?
How will I celebrate when I do that thing?
Keep building on the habit of celebrating all your successes, no matter how small or large, every day. This one key habit will keep you motivated and inspired and help you continue to move forward on those things that matter to you. All of this builds into a life full of gratitude, accomplishment, and knowledge that success is always within your reach.