March 5th, 2009
Your Turn: How do you celebrate your big accomplishments?
As I was packing for a recent business trip, I unearthed my first Coach briefcase. I’d bought it as a reward for 
myself when I’d finished the training program for my first job out of college as a systems consultant. It had been a rigorous, challenging program that had involved several all-nighters, two months of sixteen hour days, and a huge group project.
Finishing the program meant that I was finally ready, according to my employer, to enter the professional world and start being productive. It was a key milestone for me that I’d worked very hard to reach and treating myself to a Coach briefcase had been my way of celebrating that big accomplishment.
It is easy to forget to acknowledge your own successes. Maybe you are busy remembering others and their milestones. You send a friend flowers to celebrate her promotion. You buy a bottle of champagne for your significant other to celebrate his company closing a deal. You insist on covering for a co-worker so she can attend her daughter’s high school graduation.
Your reward doesn’t have to be a Coach briefcase, a bouquet of flowers, or a bottle of champagne. But it should be meaningful so that some day when you find it in the back of your closet, or you see or hear something that makes you recall how you celebrated that key win, you’ll remember. You’ll remember that you made it happen. You’ll remember that feeling of victory. You’ll remember how hard you worked and how it finally paid off. Most importantly, you’ll remember that you are capable of accomplishing great things, something that will renew your motivation if it slips, boost your confidence if it’s been faltering, and refresh your perspective if you’ve lost it.
Your turn: How do you celebrate your big accomplishments? If you don’t celebrate them, how do you plan on celebrating them in the future?
March 7th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Personally, I get tattoos and piercings to celebrate big, big life victories! I have a 5×5.5″ tattoo of a dragon on my lower back to commemorate one milestone, and nipple piercings for another. That way, the reminders of my success and profound identity changes will always be with me.