Hey! There’s a 1/365 chance that if you’re reading this, it’s your birthday! Okay, maybe the odds are less than that since the math only works if you read this IME Blog at least once a day for a year. Oh, I hope so, but not likely. Hopefully, you don’t have time to read an IME Blog every day because you’re too busy celebrating! Celebrating all your wins, that is!
What do I mean by celebrating all your wins? Isn’t that like getting a participation trophy or most improved award? Sounds cheesy and a bit unreasonable.
I get it. It almost sounds uncomfortable to celebrate all of our wins when we’re not used to celebrating any of them. Our society is so focused on external achievements, we think it’s achieving the achievement that’s the celebration. Hey, if you keep talking like that, I’m going to fall asleep. Dang, our society can be boring.
Oh no, you didn’t. Yep, I said it. If we’re always on the external achievement train and we put our success on the end game, that works only for a while. I’ve said this literally like 1,000 times already and we’re just getting IME Community started. Think it’s a bit of an important concept?
Let me get this straight. So, we know that life isn’t always a party, but when we aren’t aware of the present moment, we miss out on a lot of parties and parties we can create for ourselves. One of the ways to have more of a fun life and to want to keep taking action is to CELEBRATE YOUR WINS! After a test, an achievement, a project, an activity completion, whatever it is, you get the natural reward and pleasure that gives you a stronger sense of confidence and well-being. In other words, you just feel better and you are creating self-trust that you can do the darn thing which makes it easier to start and to accomplish the darn thing the next time. That’s great, but I’m suggesting we can do even better.
Another thing that makes taking action easier and creates more self-trust is celebrating your wins and by wins, I mean action. We are always putting off celebrations or not celebrating at all. Plus, if we are only celebrating when or if we get a good grade, we are only celebrating the outcome of our action when we can’t always control the outcome. So, why don’t we learn to celebrate what we can control and what we can control is how we show up and if we take action at all.
Taking action means taking risk. When we take action we are putting ourselves out there, knowing we can’t fully control the outcome, so why not celebrate what it takes to be successful- taking action or as I like to put it, taking risk. The other cool thing is you get to choose however you want to celebrate your action taking win.
Literally learning the skill to plan ahead of time how you will celebrate your action taking win is the key. So, you decide! Do you want to have a nice lunch, hang out with friends, do some on-line shopping you’ve been wanting to do, watch something on Netflix, get outside, make some yummy food by trying a new recipe, playing some new music, read a chapter in a book you’ve been wanting to read? One teen I was recently coaching said he likes to clean his room for a reward after taking a test or turning in a paper. Um, okay. Sure.
I recently took a test I had studied a lot for. You think it’s tough to sit and study at your age, try being my age. Don’t worry. The tests only come once in a blue moon, so it does get better. I decided the day before the exam that I had studied enough and it wasn’t going to serve me to keep shoveling and skimming and cramming information into my brain. Plus, I hadn’t managed my mind enough to remain calm when I was studying and came upon information I HAD NEVER SEEN THE DAY BEFORE THE TEST! What I decided would be better and would serve me is to study a bit and then have a nice day and get my mind to a calmer space which would serve me while I was taking the test compared to a wild monkey mind that can’t concentrate. I really liked my reasons, which when you make a decision is a really good thing.
So, I’m glad I decided to focus on having a calmer head space for my test because the next morning as I was signing on and since I was taking the test at home, it was remote proctored which meant I had to do a video of my space showing the desk, a 360 view around the desk, the ceiling, under the keyboard, under the desk, up my sleeves. I was, of course, fine with the video, but I was using our super heavy Mac to take the test, which is definitely not a laptop and has a very short cord. I was sweating up a storm trying to get this thing turned 360, show the ceiling and under the keyboard and desk. Total struggle, but worked out and I got through the test just fine.
My celebration party for taking the test (I have no idea yet how I actually did) was to go to the coolest local bookshop and find a special book. Guess what? I was too tired. I decided to veg out, take a nap, and I went to the bookshop the next day instead. You don’t have to celebrate that day. You may be needing some rest and recovery time, which is great and very important. Don’t be hard on yourself for this. But, don’t forget to celebrate the next day after you’re rested up!
You get to create your fun life!