by Kerry Taylor
"Look at how far you've come."
"Thank you but I still have a lot of work to do."
"You did it, congrats! You are able to do something that less than 1% of people have the opportunity to do."
"Great! But now I have to make sure I stay around."
"You made it 5 years in business, you know how big of a deal that is?"
"Thank you but I gotta keep working so I'm around for 5 more years."
Can you guess who that person is responding to the compliments? Some of you may have guessed it, but for those that don't know, that would be yours truly. I'm shaking my head as I think of these conversations and read them again. What I would like to speak about is something I'm not that great at, that's celebrating my achievements. You can see by the opening statements, that I really wasn't that excited as I should've or could've been in those situations. I found that other people were usually more excited for me than I would be for myself.
Some of you may have followed my NFL Blog Series and seen the roller coaster ride happen. When I look back at it, I didn't see myself overly excited about it. It was pretty much a feeling of, "okay, now back to business" type of attitude. Not many small businesses make it past the 5 year mark, but we have. It will actually soon be 8 years in business in a few weeks, sweet!) Again, same reaction, "that's great, but let's get better for another 5 years." I look back at all the accomplishments I've had and the risks I took to achieve them and I never took time to really enjoy them. I mean, come on, seriously, how many high school football player can say they made it to the NFL and played professional football for a nubmer of years? I will tell ya, 0.8%, yup, next time you see me, feel free to hit me with a football in the head.
I find sometimes we can overlook the accomplishments we strive so hard to achieve and forget about the effort we had to put in to get there. Why do I do that to myself? Why do we do that to ourselves? If you don't celebrate you will burn out, you can't relax and you live worried everyday that you're at risk of losing it. However, realize that, that maybe, by celebrating it cements the achievement in your life and allows you to love it more. Accomplisment deserves to be celebrated, not just a high five but truly celebrate it. The level of achievement will determine the level in which you celebrate. Some will actually just warrant a high five or a Tiger Woods fist pump and others may warrant a larger reward. The key here is to celebrate it regardless. Don't be shy, let people know what you were able to achieve. This is where focusing on getting better can be detrimental. You burn out, you can't relax and live worried everyday that you're at risk of losing it.
And even better, you will notice a few other things will start to happen when you celebrate. You will be able to recognize what works for you and what doesn't. This is a real life factual record for you to always refer to, when you are striving for more. Just look at what you did before. Your mindset will start to change, you will have more of a "I can" attitude. You will see yourself differetnly, not as someone who is always striving for success but as someone who is successful. Two totally different mindsets. But best of all, it feels amazing. I mean that's the goal of life isn't it? We all like to feel good, feel better, get as many warm fuzzies as we can. All of this is catchy and you will notice the people around you will start to find that they will start to be successful.
Take it from me, enjoy what you achieve and worked so hard for because it can be gone tomorrow. It could have never happneed. Slow down and smell the roses as they say. So celebrate YOU and what YOU have achieved because YOU deserve it. I know I will start to do a better job of it myself. Thank you for taking the time to read. Until next time, continue to live a life 1 degree above the rest.
