I've been trying to spend more time being grateful for what I've accomplished...
"I don't think I take enough time to celebrate my wins. When I really want something, like working with a potential client, I imagine how cool it would be if I actually made it happen. There's all this buildup around it, then I work really hard and make it happen. But basically immediately after it's done, my mindset shifts entirely. I'm just like, 'Yes, I did that. Yes, it was hard.' And then I'm immediately focusing on something else. So, recently, I've been trying to spend more time being grateful for what I've accomplished. I've started doing this thing where I tell my boyfriend, 'If I manage to do this thing, then I'm taking you out to eat at this cool new restaurant.' And I make the reservation once I've achieved my goal. Making a point to celebrate is an important part of the game."⠀
Everyone is different, but for me I've found the following works well to celebrate wins:
You can also vary the prize based on the size of your win. For me, I tend to celebrate a big win every 3-4 months, so a nice bottle of scotch fits into that pretty nicely (I don't drink it incredibly often). If you are doing monthly wins you might want something smaller. If you only do a big win once a year you might want to go all out with a weekend getaway.
This is awesome!! I think this is critical - I also struggle with it. Once a project becomes successful I tend to start focusing on what I now have to lose. If I'm not focusing on that - then I'm focusing on growth or the next project.
Massively important to take a moment - and celebrate your success.
I feel this so much. I had the hard realization that accomplishment and financial success does not necessarily make you happy. I basically had a run of smashing every achievement milestone in my life, but I took all of my focus off of my relationship, eventually that fell apart. That was a painful lesson in opportunity cost.
I like the idea of building gratitude and appreciation into your daily routine as a process to follow. When you're an entrepreneur in the trenches it can be hard to come up for air and remember all of the things in your life that support you outside of work.
You're so right about the "what's next" mentality that most of us probably have. You're making me realize that - knowing how to celebrate your wins, is a learnable skill.
Yeah it absolutely is! It's something to practice in everyday life ;)
That's why I started doing gratitude journals! I write 3 things I'm grateful for, whether it's small or big. Helps me stay grounded.
Do you do that daily? And have you noticed a change of mindset since you started?
Yes, I do it daily. I feel that it has had a positive impact on my mindset. My mind is always on the lookout for the positives, even if they’re mundane. So on a very bad day, I push myself to see a glimpse of joy/hope. There have been studies on gratitude journaling and its positive correlation to happiness...Science! 😝
Love this! I definitely need to practice this much more. Really like the celebration approach. Maybe that could work for me too. Cause I’m like: Two month ago, I had a dead blog. Now, I have probably around 30.000 visits and I’m still like mehhh, what’s next... I feel it’s really hard to celebrate and be proud of my accomplishments. Always has been this way 😔
You can set a very concrete goal. Like: at x visits / day, I celebrate by doing y.
It's something to practice =)