This week, I’ve noticed an alarming trend among the people I know and love! They work hard, they’re kind and generous, they’re great, intelligent, fabulous people…
…But they barely ever congratulate themselves for any of their achievements!
Do you congratulate yourself?
Image by stock.xchng user roym
It sounds inherently self-serving to congratulate ourselves—egotistical, silly, embarrassing, you name it. But since I started working for myself, I came to realize that if I didn’t congratulate myself, no one would. There’s no performance review period, pay rise, or Employee of the Month award in my work. There are just clients and readers.
So I started celebrating the things I’d done that I thought were good—the things I was happy with. If something I wrote performed very well, I might go out for dinner. If I handled a difficult client successfully, I might get out the champagne. If I was really rapt with a piece of work, I’d sit back and acknowledge that I was pleased with it. I might tell a friend or show my family. I might sing “We are the champions” if no one was around…
Gradually, I found myself acknowledging achievements that weren’t work-related too—side projects, hobbies, personal goals, and so on. This gives me a sense of my own capabilities—something that’s all too easily overlooked as we jump from one challenge to the next. And as you’d expect, it’s given me more confidence to handle what life presents. (I’m still a terrible singer, though…)
I can’t get over how few of the people I know really celebrate the things they achieve. In my world, even something as small as remaining calm while my colleagues panic, or suggesting a good compromise for a difficult work decision can be worth acknowledging. And in that context, new clients are practically party-prompting news!
Do you congratulate yourself? What have you achieved this week and how will you celebrate it?
Note: you can, of course, hear “We Are the Champions” in all its glory (and watch Freddy Mercury play piano in nothing but hotpants and a red kerchief) at YouTube.
About georgina
Great reminder!
Fantastic uplifting article will be getting all of the hard working people I know to congratulate themselves !
Awesome I also submitted a blog just yesterday about how to break out of the rat race to give yourself that reward! This is so true, i recently descovered this as we only just took our first holiday in 11 years.
I never dis this to me.
After reading your article, I would love to do it.
Definitely a good reminder. I’m great at setting goals and kicking myself if I fall short, but when I achieve them, I just move on to the next goal. If you’re not careful, life can look like a big to-do list, and you miss all the fun.
I do, even a tiny little thing like keeping my mouth shut at a meeting where I could have said someting I could regret later (like this morning), or going for that swim in the middle of heavy rain (onn Saturday), or tidying up my desk at last (On Friday).
And I also like congratulating other people on their achievements, not only family or firends, but also colleagues. I believe good stuff needs to be acknowledged and celebrated 🙂
Wow! I love the article. I always congratulate myself and some people especially my haters find me annoying and even called me a braggart. I thought there is something wrong with me but no, there’s nothing wrong with me as long as I FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT and I’m happy. 🙂
I have a real problem doing this. I never congratulate myself for anything, regardless of whether or not I did it well. It’s not even me just being humble; I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever done my “best,” because I feel like I’ve never done something as well as I could’ve. But I don’t use that as a motivator to do better, either; I use it as a way to rag on myself for not being good enough.
This week I’m congratulating myself for being married 50 years…..whew, it’s not easy, and I wonder how I did it, but it worked.
I’m also wondering why after having over 120 something facebook friends, that I received just 7 congrats for celebrating 50 years of marriage, yet I think if I’d said I was divorcing, I’d probably have had many ‘oh dears’ and ‘sorry to hear’.
16a13c3515cHiya, I am really glad I have found this inmaifotron. Today bloggers publish only about gossips and net and this is actually annoying. A good web site with exciting content, this is what I need. Thank you for keeping this website, I’ll be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can’t find it. 187
Yes! Finally something about รับซื้อเครื่องเพชร.