December is a wonderful time of year to both pause and plan. A pause allows you to take a good look at your triumphs, face plants, and pivots over the last year to really see how you are growing and evolving underneath all the surface activity. Planning is essential for both your professional and personal development journey. Both pausing and planning require time to take a step back and look at the bigger picture and themes.
Pause and Reflect
The new year is nothing more than turning a page on a calendar, really. But, symbolically, it’s a time for reflecting on what has been and consciously creating a new beginning. So, with that in mind, let’s first pause and reflect.
What is Achievement?
Everybody probably has varying definitions of success and achievement. Boiled down to a basic interpretation, an achievement is getting results for a goal you’ve set for yourself. Of course, it can be on a grand scale, like negotiating a significant contract, but it doesn’t have to be large. Success isn’t necessarily a huge, mind-blowing event or windfall.
Under 10% of Americans consider success in terms of status, so it can be as minor as getting daily things done, like being prepared for staff meetings.
Were you expected to do something, and you got it done? Congratulations, that’s an achievement! Clearly, not all achievements require great skill or Herculean shows of success. But successes do require effort. Simply showing up every day and rolling up your sleeves is a success in itself.
As Admiral McRaven wrote, in his book “Make Your Bed”:
“If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed… If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”
Achievement looks different for each person; it’s a subjective and personal definition. We all start from different places and have different goals, so one person’s win may not register for another person. However, that doesn’t make it any less special.
Why You Should Celebrate All the Wins
You should make it part of your routine to always celebrate your achievements. First, because you deserve it – take pride in your accomplishments! Over one-third of employees reported in one survey that their employer
gave zero recognition to achievements last year. That’s a sad statistic, but you don’t have to have a supportive employer to celebrate.
But aside from the good feels you get, there are other benefits to making the effort to mark your successes.
Reinforcing the Positive
That good feeling gives you a dopamine boost. When you celebrate, it stimulates the dopamine production in your brain. Dopamine is more than just a feel-good neurotransmitter; it also is an amazing reinforcement system in your body. Your brain realizes that you enjoy having this feeling and then yearns to recreate whatever caused that release. So, your brain starts to focus on how it can recreate your success so it gets that boost again.
If you skip the celebration and reward, you aren’t just missing out on making space for patting yourself on the back; you’re also losing the opportunity to wire your brain to keep seeking success.
Building Self Confidence
Celebrating your success instills confidence in yourself. It emphasizes the fact that, yes, you can be successful! Getting a nice morale boost sets you up for further success. Even more than putting you in the frame of mind to do it again, it encourages you to think bigger and reach even further. If you commemorate your achievement, you develop a positive attitude toward future goals; your positive attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, setting you up for even more success.
Staying Motivated
Another reason to mark your success is that it keeps you motivated. It’s a good feeling, isn’t it, to acknowledge when something has gone right? It can be an addicting feeling, inspiring you to keep building and growing. The further you reach, the more outstanding your achievements, and the bigger your celebrations can be.
If you let your successes go by without a special acknowledgment, you don’t get the chance to feel special, even if just for a short time. It isn’t every day that you meet your goals, so you shouldn’t treat it like an average day when you do. So reveling in your win can alter your self-image. You are a winner! Let that sink in for a bit; it will become another self-fulfilling prophecy.
How to Celebrate Your Achievements
You don’t need to throw a bash every time you meet one of your goals. That would get exhausting! But find small ways to treat yourself.
You might go out to dinner at your favorite restaurant, go for a walk or hike as a reward, or even find a great song that captures your triump. It’s your celebration; you get to shape it.
Life can get pretty hectic, especially when you’ve been focused on a project at work. Self-care is often one of the first things we sacrifice when we’re busy. Indulging in self-care can be a fantastic way to re-center yourself, and give you time to reflect on how proud you are of your achievement.
And don’t forget gratitude. Remember that others played a role in your accomplishment; don’t forget how thankful you are to them. Expressing gratitude can make you happier and also helps you realize just how meaningful your success is.
To wrap this year up on a high note, let’s focus on everything you accomplished this past year. What were your successes? What are you most proud of this year?
- Look back over the last 6 to 12 months and acknowledge all your growth, accomplishments, and experiences. Celebrate all your wins, big and small.
- Look at all the areas of your work as you reflect: relationships with your boss, peers, and direct reports; coaching and development; work productivity; work-life balance, navigating change, and more.
- Consider important elements of your personal life: family, friends, health, and recreation.
- List any lessons you have learned this past year that you want to carry forward. A written list gives you something tangible to refer back to later if you feel you need a reminder of past successes.
Wrapping Up
Discovering and celebrating your successes gives meaning to your work. And it can power you to keep going. So, go ahead and give yourself permission to celebrate yourself. From small indulgences like an ice cream cone to an evening out, mark the achievements you are proud of. You deserve it.
