Latest News

Celebrating Success

In many busy lives, people respond to many demands.  With too much to do and never enough hours in the day, there are always a few mistakes. 

You may be one of the people racing around trying to do it all and missing a few key items in the haste.  Do you kick yourself when that happens?  Does making a mistake set you back from your sense of accomplishment and purpose?  Becoming self-critical can sap your energy and lead to eroding self-esteem.

When was the last time you celebrated what you did get done?  How often do you recognize that sometimes you cannot do it all?  Creating a more realistic approach to your expectations can relieve some of the pressure and it can also increase your sense of effectiveness.  If you want to increase your energy, add a little success celebration to the list.

When building your “to-do” list, put in a few special treats to mark how well you are accomplishing what you need to do.  These little celebrations can be fun and free things that only take a few minutes.  Create success celebration steps along the way in big projects too.  It helps improve motivation, increases the quality of your effort and it makes it easier to feel the progress of tackling something big in a sequence of steps.  Of course, when you accomplish major goals or complete large projects, the celebration of success will be a big deal.

Couples and co-workers can help each other by keeping conversation positive and uplifting.  During busy times, this can help everyone function well.  Surprise the other person by adding a success celebration to the day.  The little things matter when there is a lot to accomplish.

The success celebrations are also a sweet motivation within families and for children.  Keep the tasks and rewards in a similar range of value if you want to build the effectiveness.  Over time, you can even decrease the frequency of the rewards as children mature and then the celebration can become more valuable.  With young children, the rewards need to be consistent and timed so the reinforcement closely follows the behavior.  Be creative, make it fun and involve everyone in the process.  Let us know how your family celebrates.  What are your favorite free motivators?  Here is an article with 50 fun things for teens.  It might help you start your own list.

Celebrating success is important for motivation, mastering self-discipline and gaining self-confidence.  It provides energy and reduces stress, perfectionism and the tedious aspects of having a lot to accomplish.

Margaret Cook, M.Ed., Licensed Professional Counselor

Life Coach