6 Ways to Find a Reason to Celebrate – YOU

I am ready to celebrate! And I want you to join me.

Why? One important reason is that celebrating feels good. (I will tell you a few other reasons later).

Psychology tells us that celebrating also helps you get a more balanced picture of reality. How? Recalling the positive restores balance to our memories, which often cling more strongly to negative events [1].

Celebrating the achievements in your life is an often overlooked step to moving forward in any area of your life. It enables us to take stock of our resources, dig deep for motivation and clearly understand the strategies that have served us well (or not) in the past. This is powerful clarity.

A common synonym for celebrate is “honor.” So, when you celebrate you take time to honor achievements. It gets more interesting when we look at the antonyms of celebrate, including “ignore”, “neglect” or even “criticize” [2]. When we fail to take time to celebrate our successes we inadvertently ignore them. We neglect to honor them. In fact, we allow more space in our brains for (self-) criticism creating an imbalance, void of praise.

In this month´s blog, I am giving you six ways for you to harvest a bumper crop of reasons to celebrate. These milestones seem simple but are unexpectedly powerful in creating a fresh perspective. Let me plant the seed: Start by picking an important area of your life (such as a recent international move, a specific time period with your family, or the last quarter at work).

Now go back and read this fleshed-out list. TAKE IT IN. This is just the tip of the iceberg – a hint of what you are capable of doing. It´s time to break out the champagne.

Could you list at least two things per category? Great! Let it be and come back to it in a day and see what else pops into mind. Stuck? Call a sparring partner. This person can help you brainstorm other successes. Your achievements are numerous and worth digging for.

Curious about what I am celebrating?

This month marks the 1st anniversary of the founding of my company Sundae Schneider-Bean LLC. Today I am also celebrating the 33 items on my own list of personal accomplishments, learnings, challenges overcome, and moments of inspiration.  My list of things to celebrate go beyond work accomplishments. Here is a small excerpt from my list:

№ 27 – Working in flip flops

№ 28 – Enjoying 2-hour “mini-vacations” throughout my regular work-week

№ 29 – My day-to-day life is input for both my personal and professional growth

№ 30 – I partner with international clients that inspire me as much as I inspire them

Setting aside flip-flops, great clients, and mini-vacations, most importantly I am celebrating having you in my growing community. I am deeply grateful that you choose to invest a few moments of your precious time to reflect on what I have to share. Thank you. I am honored.

Here is to celebrating accomplishments – and to you!

Cheers! 

 

 

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[1] Research from psychology tells us that when it comes to our brain “bad” is a lot stronger than “good” so people tend to remember the negative more strongly than the positive. At work, for example, people tend to be impacted more strongly by setbacks (negative) than by progress (positive). For details see Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K.D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323-370.

[2] celebrate. (n.d.). Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Retrieved June 21, 2014, from Thesaurus.com.