I see it over and over again, and okay–I live it too. We may be smart, we may be strong, we may be very good (or think we are) at doing a million things at once, but most of us aren’t very good at giving ourselves credit (dare I say, indulging ourselves in our just desserts?).
I’ll bet you that right now you can easily come up with six things that you need to do or that are bugging you because they are undone. How long does it take you to come up with six recent accomplishments you are proud of? I’ll guarantee you that there ARE six accomplishments. But it’s likely that that isn’t where you are focusing your attention.
So many of us are great at being tireless, at always being poised to do “one more thing,” that we don’t really absorb the thing we just did and the goal we just accomplished.
We don’t take credit. So many women I know are masters of the “yes-but” that diminishes whatever it is that they just completed. Above all, most of us are lousy celebrators. Don’t get me wrong. Some of us are great at tooting the horn for anybody else. I know lots of great party throwers. But how many of us really and regularly take a bow or reward ourselves for what we’ve done? Really.
Do you know the price that we pay? Not celebrating and not recognizing our milestones diminishes our success. We miss out on a great opportunity for rejuvenation. We are much more likely to burn out or to fall off track. And honestly, we’re most likely to turn to “vices” that we don’t really want to (like food) because in the end, we feel tired and we know we deserve SOMETHING (is that an UNjust dessert?). Even knowing that, it’s so tempting to skip the step of giving credit, to tell ourselves that the accomplishment is its own reward and that we’ll celebrate next time. “Because we’re really too busy right now”. I know. I’m there too. But more and more I realize that I’m too busy NOT to celebrate.
Let’s hear it. What are your thoughts about celebrating? Do you? Don’t you? What’s your favorite way of celebrating?
