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We often don’t give ourselves enough credit for ALL we do!

I keep seeing my clients focus on the “lack”/ what’s missing/all of everything else that has to be done and not celebrating their successes/triumphs/all of everything that they indeed HAVE accomplished!  Sometimes simply getting out of bed is a HUGE accomplishment!  Sometimes, brushing our teeth at night is a tremendous success to be celebrated!

What we focus on will grow.

Rather than focusing on all you did not do today, all of everything that needs to be done, how far away you are from your future vision, try focusing on all you DID do!  All you ARE DOING in alignment with your goals and vision!!!  We’ve all accomplished soooo much that we don’t take enough credit for!!!  Take a moment to celebrate your successes when you accomplish them, so your successes may grow!

I’m noticing 3 major trends:

1. Accomplishing a goal and then beating oneself up over everything that didn’t go awesome in it.

Example: “Yeah, I ran the marathon, I guess.  But I didn’t make my goal time, I had horrible form, had to take a break somewhere in the middle.”

Um, wha?!?!  YOU JUST COMPLETED A MARATHON!!!  Who cares what time you came in?! Again, YOU JUST COMPLETED A MARATHON!!!!! You just accomplished a HUGE goal!  Celebrate your success!!!  There will always be room for improvement and growth!  *Always!* That doesn’t need to take away from your current phenomenal achievement!

2.  Focusing on future goals at the completion of one goal, or even before the goal has been accomplished.

Example:  “K, first marathon of the year done.  Now to train for the next one!  I’ll need new shoes, to register by this date, gotta find some running buddies.”

Whoa, again, YOU JUST COMPLETED A MARATHON!!!! Wanna take a moment and celebrate this?  Please?  Have a celebratory dinner!  Let people praise you for your accomplishments!  YOU DESERVE IT!  You just did something extraordinary and wonderful, get outta the future and get here now and celebrate it! Celebrate you!  Yay, YOU!!!!

The deal is, if we don’t celebrate all our current successes, then we start to stop getting inspired by our future visions and goals.  We train ourselves to dread them and feel overwhelmed by them.  We’ll procrastinate and feel impeding doom.  We start to feel hopeless and discouraged before even starting at a goal.

When we do celebrate ourselves, our accomplishments and our successes – no matter how big or “small!” – we train ourselves to look forward to future goals and we feel more inspired by them, by ourselves, by life!  We are more committed to ourselves and our goals when our relationship with our goals is a healthy, positive one.  Positive reinforcement is always longer lasting and far more effective than negative reinforcement.  Studies say so!

Here’s a few ways to start the re-training process:

1.  Reward yourself!

I bought myself a new dress that was a little fancier than my comfort zone at the launch of Nuurvana as way of rewarding myself for my success!  You have no idea how incredible I feel every time I wear this dress!  I feel like my own proud mom!  My heart welts up with joy!  It’s such a very special, beautiful feeling that only continues to grow with time!  It’s like reminding me of how awesome it is living my full potential.  Pretty fantastic feeling!  Try it!

2.  Success journal!

Yup, this has been a “homework” assignment for many of you lately!  Simply write down your daily successes.  I do mine at the end of the day.  I list 5+ accomplishments each night.  Something like;

I got caught up with emails!  Yay, me! I worked – out today, yay!  I choose not to eat that brownie, whoo-hoo!  I flossed my teeth, yay!  I meditated, hooray!  I scheduled some appointments, yay, me!

*The yay’s and whoo-hoos are fun for me (I heart silly!) and I find them helpful in retraining myself, but they’re definitely not necessary.  Make it yours!

3.  When accomplishing a goal, simply take a moment to close your eyes, take a deep breath and let the experience of success and accomplishment in!  A good mantra is, “I made this happen!” or “I celebrate my success!” My personal favorite, “I am making all my dreams come true!”

Celebration Nation, please!!!  We all deserve it!