Do you ever take time to recognize your accomplishments?
I mean really take a moment and sit with the feeling, “YES! I did it!”
Why not?
Celebrating yourself generates positive emotions, reinforces positive behavior, helps get us back on track when we get off, and helps us to remember that the journey to our goal is actually more important that the goal itself.
Celebrating Your Wins Generates Positive Emotions
Taking the time to celebrate your wins will generate positive emotions like pride, confidence, inspiration and motivation.
The way we feel, drives our actions and ultimately creates the results in our lives.
So, taking the time to celebrate yourself will generate emotions that will drive you to the positive actions you want to be taking.
Plus, emotions like inspiration, pride, confidence and motivation just FEEL good – so why the heck not? Why not just do it because it feels good!?
How does celebrating yourself reinforce positive behavior and help us get back on track when we “fail”?
When you don’t take the time to celebrate your positive behavior, your brain will see small accomplishments as “no big deal” and won’t be as motivated to repeat them.
Taking the time to recognize small accomplishments makes the small steps you are taking toward your goal something your brain desires.
When you celebrate your small steps it generates feel good emotions, and because it feels good your brain naturally wants more.
It’s also important for decreasing behaviors you are trying to break.
For example, let’s say you are trying to incorporate more whole food into your diet and eat less processed food. You have a nice healthy and filling salad for dinner. However, two hours later, you have a pint of ice cream you hadn’t planned on while watching TV.
Our natural inclination is to beat ourselves up for eating the ice cream, which makes you feel bad about yourself and defeated. Defeat does not motivate people to change.
However, if you take the time to celebrate eating a healthy dinner – “I’m disappointed that I ate that ice cream. But I ate a beautiful salad for dinner, when I used to eat fast food. How amazing is that! I am making progress!”
Where your focus goes, your energy flows. Focusing on celebrating your achievements versus focusing on your “failures” helps us to get back on track.
Celebrating helps us remember what’s most important regarding our goals
The road to our goal is where the real change happens.
The change does not happen when you reach the goal, the change happens on the way there.
We need to celebrate each step to increase our confidence and keep us motivated when the inevitable challenges and detours arise.
Let’s take for example a goal of loosing 20 pounds. The ability to reach this goas requires several small steps and changes in behavior. Becoming a person who is 20 pounds lighter requires changes in your thinking, the way you eat, and the way you move your body.
Its’s so important to celebrate each little step along the journey.
Each little step is an accomplishment and should be recognized as such!
Celebrating helps you to recognize your growth and to recognize how far you have come versus focusing on failure and how far you have to go.
Recognizing your accomplishments helps you to keep a more empowered mindset.
Remember, wherever your focus goes, the energy will flow.
Let’s focus the energy on our wins every day!!
What have you done today that you could be celebrating?
I Can Help
My name is Laura Hayek and I am a nurse coach who helps empower women over 40 to create habits for a healthier body, mind and spirit.
Check out my website, www.laurahayek.com, to schedule a free coaching session to discover how I can help you on your journey to holistic health!