As we move towards the end of the year, many people, including myself, reflect on the year and think about what they would like to do differently next year. As someone who is always setting new challenges and is keen to continue to improve, I often move on to the goal setting stage before taking time to celebrate the successes. Taking time to appreciate things that have gone well (either accomplishments we’re proud of, or things we have learnt) is incredibly important and I’ve been making a conscious effort to do more of this before moving on to the next thing.
Here are some of the things I’m particularly proud of this year and things I’m doing (or have done) to celebrate them:
- Got married! We eloped in Las Vegas in June this year. The real success here was getting over my fear of marriage. I celebrated this at the time with my husband on our honeymoon and following the wedding with various family and friends (we actually have another celebration tomorrow!).
- Completed two sets of personal counselling and one set of couple’s counselling. I celebrated this by taking time to reflect on what I’d learnt each time, and read through my notes to appreciate how far I’d come.
- Completed my CILIP Fellowship journey. I may not have been successful in terms of the outcome of this, but I’m proud of what I achieved from the process. I celebrated this by taking a break on holiday.
- Developed and delivered a four-week online course on Overcoming Imposter Syndrome as part of the Mindful Leadership for Women Programme I’ve established with Sarah Durrant. We’re celebrating this by meeting up in January for tea and cake 🙂
- Realised I want to pursue a career in coaching. I celebrated this by sharing my passion with others, by attending coaching workshops, and investing in another qualification to move me towards being an ICF accredited coach.
- Got my first paying coaching client; this was a recent achievement and definitely a highlight of December. I celebrated this by going out for an afternoon and evening with my husband and investing time in developing coaching materials for my new coaching clients (if you’re interested in receiving coaching feel free to contact me, I will be taking on new clients in the new year).
- Nurtured and appreciated existing and new friendships. I celebrated this by spending more time with friends (or communicating with friends) without feeling any guilt.
One thing I do to celebrate successes on a regular basis is to record them in my journal each month. I also save positive feedback in a ‘feel good’ folder and whenever my husband or I get a new client we go out for a meal together to celebrate.
What are you proud of this year? What was time well spent? What was money well spent? What have you learnt?
What could you do to celebrate these things? How could you integrate practices to help you regularly celebrate successes?
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