Are you celebrating your successes?
Earlier this month, I facilitated an off-site retreat with one of my non-profit clients. This organization has had quite the year with many successes but also a high level of pressure. As we designed the session, we wanted to make sure there was time to celebrate the successes.
We started with a simple exercise but it ended up being very powerful for the group. I gave each person a stack of sticky notes to write down all the things that were successes for the year. I would guess each person had at least 5, and some were closer to 10-15. I then read them out to the group. There were some overlaps but not too many. They had a lot to celebrate.
The even more powerful impact was what we did next. The team had another stack of sticky notes to write down who or what they were grateful for from this past year - from the team, the board, the volunteers, etc. For this group of sticky notes, they read them out themselves so they could add any additional context. At the end, I had them give the person the sticky note if they were present. For me, it was truly inspiring to watch.
It made me think about how little we tend to celebrate our successes. We often wait for big milestones instead of the daily wins. I think we often undervalue them as not big enough for a celebration.
But, what if, celebrating those small wins is what keeps our energy levels high enough so that we can do life every week?
What if we didn’t treat celebrations like there’s a limited number we can have in life?
What if there are an infinite number of celebrations of wins we can have…and they don’t make us arrogant or braggarts?
What if celebrating our daily and weekly wins is all about recognizing that we do hard stuff every week, and we deserve our own pat on the pack for a job well done.
During our Leadership Endurance RoundTable earlier this week, we started the 2024 reflection by listing at least 3 successes from the year. I know that, for each of us, our list should be much longer than 3.
I encourage you, during this potentially slower time of year leading up to January 1st, that you grab a pen (or your digital notebook) and write down ALL of the successes from the year, even the little ones that you’ll probably never declare to someone else, but that you know were a win.
We all do hard things.
It’s time to clap for yourself and the people around you. We all deserve it.
Go celebrate you!
Melissa
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