The Secrets of Celebration.
Why it’s the Ultimate Act of Reflection in Motion.
When you see or hear the word “Celebration”, what images come to mind? Are they visions of birthday dinners, anniversary parties, engagement announcements, and promotion toasts? Do you picture gifts, balloons, cigars, and Champagne?
I used to think that way, as well. But what if I told you that my new definition of celebration is the secret sauce to living a contented life? If you’re rubbing your hands together thinking about all of the festivities in your future, take a breath. A contented life celebration is unrelated to the images mentioned above.
Celebration Goldie style is recognizing the daily delights and baby steps that add up to everyday living. This type of celebration serves to slow down your sprint on the hamster wheel of life and recognize all that you actually attend to and accomplish daily.
Ironically, this type of celebration commands the opposite of what we’ve programed our own brains to think. We tell ourselves that we need to move faster, get more done, and become disappointed, embarrassed and self-deprecating for not having gone even further.
I invite you to consider celebration as a natural part of your daily duties, rather than for exclusively marking milestone events like birthdays, promotions, and national holidays. While this omits the overindulgence aspects of celebration, it produces greater presence, perpetuates confidence, and even promotes good health.
Consider this self-styled definition: Celebration is a mental acknowledgment of experiencing an activity, task, action, realization or response. This could be in the form of an internal “way to go” or a fist pump. It could be a somatic practice of tipping a proverbial hat or standing tall in homage to yourself.
The reasons for celebration can be as varied as focusing fully on a task, patiently showing a direct report how to do a task (again!), recognizing when you can’t affect the outcome of a situation, or remaining connected and curious despite someone “attacking” you with questions that might otherwise provoke defensiveness.
No effort is too small for a cerebral salute. The brain doesn’t know the difference between winning a BIG piece of business and asking a thought-provoking question during a meeting.
Let’s take a closer look at three of the benefits of celebration:
Celebration promotes greater presence. Think about it. How often do you take a moment to recognize the baby steps that add up to your daily activities? Do you appreciate the courageous conversations that you initiate, or the multiple moving parts you manage to complete a chapter of a project? When you do, you’re slowing down time by bringing yourself back to the present.
It’s unfortunate that so often upon completing a task, whether it be a phone call or a big proposal, driven professionals immediately start scaling the next mountain. There is a perpetual sense of running to keep up, to get ahead, to get things done.
By acknowledging small and big milestones alike, we actually stop, reflect on the effort that went into the task, and move on. This act brings us to the present. And the most basic tenet of mindfulness is coming back to the present again and again. This act will also lead to greater confidence.
Celebration perpetuates confidence. Consider confidence as “a belief in one’s ability to succeed— a belief that stimulates action.” Using this definition, confidence is a self-feeding thought process. And when you celebrate by acknowledging what you do, the deed acts as the motivation to prove to yourself that you can handle something in the future.
When you continue to run toward the next project without acknowledging what you’ve just completed, it acts as a double mis-service. First, because you’re losing the forward momentum this stimulus provides. Second, after we’ve accomplished something, we quickly forget the struggle, the frustration, the stretching outside of a comfort zone, the stumbling, and the fear of engaging. We can choose to re-write our story from, “Wow, I will never be able to do this” to “I persevered and DID it”.
Celebration Supports Good Health. Every time you give yourself a silent but heartfelt “rock on”, your brain releases little hits of oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin and endorphins. Neurochemically, these “happy hormones” leave you feeling a greater sense of connection, comfort, focus, attention and security. These ways of being reward you with greater engagement, clarity and satisfaction in life! It’s no wonder that when we acknowledge the little delights in life, we feel happier. This happiness leads to healthier behaviors.
However you slice it, by noticing and silently acknowledging each tiny effort you put forth daily, you’ve paving the way to an ultimately contented life. As Lao Tzu said, “Contentment is not complacency. It is reverence.”
I’ll take a double serving of that! Can I order one for you, as well?
Is Coaching for you? Are you ready for it? Sign up HERE for a 15-minute Complimentary Coaching Consult to find out.