A common theme among goal seekers is to focus on trouble areas and things that are impeding goal progress rather than taking time to recognize what’s working well.
It’s imperative to take the time to appreciate the success you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Celebrating milestones builds confidence and motivation and creates a positive cycle toward greater victories and triumphs. Let’s look at ways that you can fully celebrate your success.
Why Celebrate Success?
Think about when you were a kid. Whether it was getting good grades, acing tests, winning games or competitions, or even staying out of trouble (for me, at least), we were constantly incentivized and rewarded for positive results. It made us feel good, filled us with pride, and made us want to build on our success. It’s crazy that, in many ways, we’ve completely abandoned a reward system that was so psychologically beneficial to us growing up.
Aside from the incentive, celebrating your success will also help you aim higher in your goal development and build rituals and habits to make sustainable success a part of your lifestyle. Here are some great ways to celebrate your success. Whoop whoop!
Take a Little Time for Self-Care
Regardless of the nature of your goals, chances are they wore you out physically, mentally, or both. So a great and simple way to celebrate is to give yourself a little break.
Celebrate an achievement in a way that soothes your mind, body, and spirit. Of course, a spa day is a great option, but it can also be as simple as spending time with friends and family or watching a beautiful sunset or sunrise. Take a trip to somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit, or enjoy hobbies you’re super into, like hiking, photography, or gardening.
The point is to take a little time to reflect back on all the work you put in to achieve an accomplishment and relish the feeling of reaching your goal.
Get Out & Get Moving
Celebration dance, anyone? Going out and dancing is such a fun and natural way to express happiness, excitement, and a sense of accomplishment. Moving and shaking will get those endorphins flowing, enhancing the rush of celebratory euphoria. Then again, if you just want to dance around in your kitchen, that’s cool too!
Maybe your thing is yoga, or spin class, or working out, or just plain going out for a walk or run. Anything that gets you out and gets your heart beating is an awesome way to celebrate a milestone you’ve achieved.
Treat Yourself, Literally
This goes right back to the idea of incentivizing and rewarding success. As silly as it might sound, getting yourself a gift can be a satisfying and fun way to celebrate an accomplishment you’ve been working so hard to achieve.
Sweet new pair of shoes? Nice! Sharp new outfit? OMG! Fun new gadget? Very cool! Delicious Whole Blend IsaLean® Shake? Tasty!
In fact, we have a whole line of amazingly sleek and stylish gear to having you looking your best while celebrating. Check it out here.
It’s not just for fun either — there’s science behind rewarding success. Basically, there’s a part of your brain called the “reward system” that is activated when you reward or reinforce something stimulating, which releases dopamine. Can’t argue with science, right?
Practice Gratitude
This may be one of the most underrated ideas for celebration. Very few things in life are as integral to our overall wellbeing as gratitude. Thinking about all the reasons you’re grateful goes perfectly with reflecting on all the steps it took for you to reach a desired goal.
Practicing gratitude aligns with truly appreciating and reflecting upon the things you’re thankful for, and gratitude is more likely to produce more positive emotions and elicit compassion and kindness. Gratitude also promotes a positive mindset toward your next goal. The power of positive thoughts is truly immeasurable.
A Highlight in Your Life
Regardless of which way you choose to celebrate your successes, it’s so important to make a landmark out of the occasion as a kind of bookmark in the story of your life.
Way back when, early on in my career in New York City, I did all sorts of jobs while trying to achieve my dream of becoming a real writer. When I finally earned a writing position, I was over the moon. For whatever reason, as soon as I accepted the position, I went and got an ice cream cone.
The ice cream didn’t matter — it was just a way of marking that moment of success. Because of that little celebration, I’ll never forget that moment. I’ll always remember that feeling, and I can always draw from it to stay motivated and strive for success. A similar celebration could work for you too!
