10 Ways to Celebrate Yourself and Your Achievements
When was the last time you patted yourself on the back?
I know, we are always told that it’s not polite to laud yourself, that you should be humble. But there’s a problem with that philosophy. It conveniently lets you overlook your own contributions to the world, and reinforces that your value is insignificant. Nothing could be farther from the truth. EVERYTHING you do is significant—to yourself, to others around you and to the world at large. And when you perform acts or tasks that are particularly outstanding, important, inspired, creative, kind, or expanding beyond your previous expertise or experience, you deserve to be recognized. Whether that recognition is from outside of yourself or simply inside, it is imperative to acknowledge your success and growth.
If you are like me, you often rush through your day looking ahead at the tasks on your “to do” list or the things you must accomplish by the end of the week. You are focused on the future and you have skipped over what you might just have done. I have been very fortunate to have been in a coaching program with the elegant visionary personal growth leader Barbara DeAngelis, who reminded me that I seldom stop and applaud myself for all of the things I accomplish. I’m always thinking about what’s next…and in so doing, I minimize what I HAVE achieved. This is focusing on LACK. I look at my book sales and think, “What am I not doing, where have I not marketed my book?” instead of “Look how far we’ve come in sales and how many people we are influencing to change their lives!” Or I think “I’m not reaching enough people to deliver my message of Conscious Creation,” instead of saying, “Wow, now I have a fantastic video of myself speaking to an audience on the website, I have a speech I love, a powerpoint presentation, a speaker’s packet, a flyer promoting my speaking engagements and I’m poised to take off as a professional speaker!”
Do you do this, too? Minimize your achievements while you narrow your focus to what you haven’t YET done?
If we want to raise our personal frequency, there’s no better way than recognizing our own personal achievements, relaxing into our success, and feeling good about what we’ve accomplished before setting off on the next quest!
So we have to STOP, breathe and pat ourselves on the back. This is abundance in action. This is compassion for ourselves and gratitude for our own gifts.
You must shift how you look at your own life and mine it for the myriad successes you forget to celebrate.
Therefore to make you consciously OWN your own wonderful achievements, start a list of 10 Achievements You Should Celebrate and then 10 Ways to Celebrate Them!
To create your list of achievements, look at everything you do in your life—don’t minimize simple tasks that you take for granted. But pick the ones that are the greatest stretch for you, the ones that required effort, intellect, creativity, perseverance, love or inspiration.
Then periodically make sure that you stop and practice self –appreciation with one of the following 10 celebrations –or others that you might create.
- Give your self a minimum of 15 minutes of reverent silence and gleeful pride! (It’s OK to be proud as long as you are not gloating over others!)
- Share with your dearest friends, your lover or your family your joy over your victories and achievements. They will assuredly mirror back to you wonderful happiness for you and encouragement. Of course, thank them for their support of you.
- Write a letter to yourself extolling your achievements, your talents and your special abilities that enabled you to be successful. Be grateful to yourself, as well as the Universe!
- Light a candle and bask in its flame. Light incense and drink in the scent of your success. Enjoy the sunset with a nice glass of wine.
- Take a long luxurious bubble bath and think about what you’ve achieved. (Alternate, jump in the Jacuzzi or spa and indulge yourself with a long soak.)
- Spend part of the day outdoors in nature renewing your appreciation for yourself, reinforced and blessed by the flowers, the animals and the positive energy of the sun.
- Take a day off and once an hour remember why you’ve earned that day.
- Make or go out for a nice dinner and invite someone you want to celebrate with.
- Get a massage or go to the day spa, so you can treat your body and your mind with pampering love!
- Keep a journal of your achievements and look it over weekly, monthly and again on New Year’s Eve Day. Toast to your achievements at year’s end, along with some special friends. Toast to theirs, too!
So now I toast to you…and please email me any other ways that you celebrate your success. I want to hear what you are personally doing to pause and recognize how wonderful and unique you are—and what a gift you are to this world!