A pat on the back

Last night I asked my son how things were going with him. His answer was: “I’m feeling particularly great today. I realized I’ve accomplished a lot lately, so I’m off to celebrate by going for sushi with my friends”. What a great answer!

That made me do something I don’t do enough of. I took an “applause pause” – a few minutes to make a list of everything I’d done this month. I’d accomplished some major tasks that I’d been pursuing for several months, some of them quite complex. Most of us don’t ever take the time to think about our accomplishments and celebrate. This is something we all should do because time is fleeting, and, often, if you don’t congratulate yourself, no-one will. And you deserve to be congratulated, however small or big your achievements!

How often do we do something significant, and wave it aside as “meh, no big deal”, and off we go to start another thing? Yet, when we mess up, we tend to stop to beat ourselves up and over-analyze all we did wrong. So why should it be difficult to cheer ourselves on when we do well? To analyze what we did well to accomplish the task?

Some people are superstitious and think that if they feel too good or say something good about themselves or their loved ones, “something bad” will happen to “teach them a lesson”. Don’t let that kind of dialogue constrain you. Celebrate you and all that you’ve done! Blow your own trumpet, just to yourself, once in a while. It feels great!

So, make today the day you pat yourself on the back. Take the time to be your own fan, your own cheerleader. Because after all, you are a go-getter who gets things done!

I’ll take a lesson from my son: I did good today. I’m proud of me, so I’m going to celebrate …… with sushi!

Email me: bernadette@gogettercoaching.com .