Episode 33: Celebrating Your Wins to Win More

We live in a world of organized chaos, and when we are in the middle of chaos, we can have the tendency to get distracted by goals. When that goal is met, we move to the next goal, and then we move to the next goal.

And if you’re constantly just moving to the next goal without celebrating what it is that you’ve accomplished along the way, you’re going to stay in a chronic state of stress. And when you’re in a state of chronic stress, your cortisol levels are spiked and then they stay there, which means you’re in a state of fight or flight at all times. This will lead to burnout.

This will lead to dis-ease within the body. Your adrenals will be affected by this. Your health will be affected by this. Your emotional and mental state of being can be affected by this. When you take the opportunity to celebrate your wins, it’s like a reward system to your brain that gives you a dopamine hit.

It sends happy chemicals to the brain that says, “Hey, you did a good job, thanks for doing this.” And then your brain goes, “How can we do this again? How can we repeat this again so that I can be rewarded again for doing a good job?” When you take time to celebrate, you’re also taking time to analyze what it is that you did a good job doing, what didn’t work, and how you can move forward past those challenges or opportunities. You take the opportunity to look at what didn’t work, and what worked well, and you come up with another game plan to recreate the success in a different way so that your brain can be rewarded as well.

So when you celebrate your wins, you’re also creating a success mindset because it motivates you on an energetic level, on a chemical level in the brain to continue to win, which is so neat if you think about it. So all you have to do is say, “Yay, I did a good job!” and celebrate the milestones along the way. Now, so often people think that I can only celebrate major milestones in my life, like getting married or a big anniversary or a major promotion at work. That’s simply not true. You can celebrate the smallest things in life.

Let’s say you’re super tired and you’re unmotivated to go to the gym or to work out for the day. But you know that working out is going to make your back feel better. It’s going to give you more energy tomorrow. And so by working out, you’re going to feel better, but you’re just tired for the day. So one of the things that you could do is celebrate that you ended up working out.

Give yourself a reward after working out. Maybe you’re into a special protein shake after you work out. Maybe that’s your reward for doing a good job. Maybe it’s having a special cup of tea or doing a celebratory dance, taking a moment to just give thanks. Any form of celebration is great.

It’s totally up to you what that celebration looks like. You can celebrate it with others. Others want to celebrate our successes and it allows us to be in community as well. The other way that you can celebrate too is by looking at the milestones along the way. You can celebrate milestones so that you’re not just waiting for the end to when you meet that goal.

And it allows you to stay on track and save on pace to complete the task that you’re wanting to complete, to accomplish the goal that you’re wanting to accomplish. And the milestones are totally what you decide. What those are. There might be very clear milestones and what it is that you’re wanting to celebrate. There might not be.

Look at what it is that you’re doing and how you can bring in celebration now. One of the things that I learned in my life coaching certification course is that we always had a success move, a celebration move that we would do anytime that we were wanting to celebrate something. And I think that this is a really great principle. So one of the things that you can do is come up with a success move that allows you to send a signal to the brain that says, we’re celebrating now.

And it could be a little shimmy, a little shake. It could have a sound like woohoo or it could have any particular movement or sound that feels good to you, that allows you to acknowledge that you’re celebrating something in that particular moment which will change your energy, it will make you smile, it will make you feel good, and it will give you a dopamine hit as well. The other thing about celebrating wins is that you want to place a reward with it. So what are you going to reward yourself with to celebrate? It does not have to be a physical, tangible object.

It could be I’m going to reward myself by going on an amazing hike and just being out in nature. Or maybe you’re going to reward yourself by listening to a new album that you’ve been wanting to listen to and you’re delaying satisfaction and listening to it until you complete that thing that you’re wanting to complete. Whatever it is, it can be very simple. It can be intangible or tangible. Whatever it is, you want to bring these celebrations into your life because they will create more wins.

You might be thinking, “Hey Amy, that all sounds great, but I feel really awkward celebrating wins. I might not feel that what I’m celebrating is big enough or important enough or I just feel as if it’s something really silly to celebrate.” I’m here to tell you that you can celebrate anything, my dear. Anything that you want. It’s important to acknowledge your accomplishments along the way so that you are not in a state of chronic stress, that you are allowing yourself to acknowledge what it is that you’ve achieved throughout your day, throughout your lifetime, and throughout the month.

And who’s to say it’s silly? It’s not silly. It’s important. And it’s important because it makes you feel good. It’s important because it changes your perception and your reality.

It’s important because you said it’s important. That thing that you’ve been working on is important. It’s a part of your day, it’s a part of your life, it’s a part of you. And it’s important to actually acknowledge what it is that you’ve been doing so that you can continue to feel and be fed by the universe and have the experiences that you want to have. And so if you’re ever feeling down, if you’re ever feeling like I’m not good enough, there’s nothing for me to celebrate in life, find something.

And it could be the simplest, simplest thing as like, you know what? I’m so grateful I brushed my hair today. My hair feels so good. It feels so sleek. It’s great.

Or it could be I’m celebrating that I picked out the softest feeling T-shirt because it feels so good on my body. And I’m celebrating this score because I want something amazing that feels good to me. Again, it could be so simple. It does not have to be complicated. Celebrate your wins so that you can create more wins in your life.

Also, don’t move on to the next thing without celebrating the thing before, because you deserve to have that dopamine hit. You deserve to feel good. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I look forward to seeing you in the next one. Make sure you like and subscribe.

Bye.