It can often feel more natural to focus on what you haven’t done well in life and how you’ve failed to meet your expectations, rather than to celebrate yourself for the things that have gone well.
Looking for the next goal as soon as you’ve achieved something like reaching your target weight or getting a promotion, can also mean that you don’t take time to reflect on what you’ve achieved.
But if you forget to celebrate each success and just push those goal posts out even further, it can lead to even more dissatisfaction and that feeling of never quite being where you need to be.
So why is it so difficult to celebrate our achievements?
We’re often taught when we are growing up that we shouldn’t brag about ourselves and should play down our accomplishments. Blowing our own trumpet can therefore be seen as a negative trait, especially for women as no-one likes a ‘show off’ do they?
Another reason it’s so hard to celebrate ourselves is if we develop a mental habit of looking for what we think we’re not doing well, being self-critical or focusing on having not achieved the result yet, as this energy puts us in a state of lack and scarcity.
>With this in mind, below are five reasons why you should celebrate yourself often:
- It increases your confidence
Confidence is created by your thoughts so if your thinking about yourself is constantly negative and you’re focused on what you’re not achieving, it decreases your confidence.If you’re someone that struggles with confidence, how often are you celebrating yourself? Chances are, not very much, if at all. So this would be a great place for you to start.
- You inspire others
When you’re proud of yourself and you share it, you are honouring yourself and inspiring other people by showing them what is possible.You’re also giving off a very attractive energy as when you’re in a place of celebration, your energetic frequency is very different than when you are beating yourself up and constantly focusing on what you think you’re not doing well enough.
- It helps you to overcome doubt
The fourth reason is that you can use celebrating yourself to overcome doubt when you want to try something new.When you create a goal for yourself and all that doubt comes up, you can just sit down and write out your achievements to show yourself what you’ve done and what you’re capable of.
- It helps you to focus on the journey
One of the reasons why people give up way too soon on their dreams and their goals is that they’re so focused on the outcome and they’re constantly feeling the lack of not being there yet, but they’re making themselves miserable along the way.As Abraham Hicks says, “There is no happy ending to an unhappy journey”.There is no upside to making yourself miserable so focus on the journey by celebrating yourself along the way.
- You attract more in your life
When you’re celebrating yourself you attract more into your life as your energy is flowing towards what you want to experience more of.There’s an old saying in the personal development world that says, “Your energy flows where your attention goes.” So, if your attention is going towards denying yourself of feeling proud of yourself, then that’s where all of your energy is going.And wherever your energy is going, that is what is creating your life. So, by celebrating, it’s like stopping the momentum of your energy moving in that direction and it starts flowing towards what you want to experience more of.
When you celebrate yourself, you’re telling the universe that you’re ready for more. You start attracting more things to celebrate. And so, pay attention to where you’re focusing your attention because that’s where all your energy is going.
If you’d like to celebrate yourself more, here are a few ways to do it:
- Write down your achievements
Firstly write down all of your achievements.If you’re brain starts saying “Well, I haven’t really achieved that much,” then that’s not true. If you’ve made it to this point in your life, you’ve had accomplishments. Force yourself to come up with at least 25 to begin with.
- Write down 5 things you’re proud of doing every night
This gives you a chance to reflect on how well you’ve done that day, even if it’s just doing some homework with the kids or taking the bins out. It’s a practice that gets you celebrating yourself.
- Think how you like to celebrate others
How do you like to celebrate others? This can give you an insight to how you might like to celebrate yourself. Do you like to take them to dinner? Do you like to buy them a gift or flowers? Do you like to tell them how amazing they are? You may want to ask yourself the opposite of that, how do you enjoy others celebrating you? Do you like when they surprise you with a meal out or a day away? Do you like it when they send you flowers?
- Celebrate your qualities
Celebrating yourself isn’t always just about accomplishments, it can be celebrating qualities that you love about yourself, how loving you are, how persistent you are, or how kind you are.These are just some of the ways that you could celebrate yourself for all the small things you do and getting this far in life.The important thing is that you make it a conscious, deliberate practice to celebrate yourself often and make time for it. Recognise every one of your achievements and allow yourself to be a success.
- High five yourself in the mirror!
Some people like to high five themselves in the mirror. There’s some scientific evidence that shows this is a great way of celebrating yourself to increase your confidence and happiness. I’ve tried this but I’m not sure I am a high five kind of person, I’m more of a thumbs up – so whatever works for you!
Good luck with celebrating you and remember, when you celebrate you, life celebrates you back.
If you need help discovering your qualities and achievements, get in touch for a free half hour chat about coaching or see my coaching programmes.