Celebrate little successes

When you are in the middle of a project or starting/growing a company, you are laser-focused on the end goal. Every step you take, every decision you make is aimed to get closer to that goal.

Often that goal is far away or yet so close but still out of grasp. It ain’t over till the fat lady sings as the colloquialism goes. There is much truth to that. I like to say it is more of a marathon than a sprint. If you go too fast or expect too much early on, you will run out of steam, stamina or breath.

A marathon is long though and most projects and companies take a lot longer to come to life. You need intermediate steps to assess if you are making progress or heading in the right direction.

But you also need to celebrate. You did the work and you accomplished something. It is a reason to celebrate.

Often we have a tendency to wait until “the money is in the bank”, but there is no fault in celebrating a little while keeping the eye on the target. There is really no reason to think you will jinx it by celebrating too soon. Celebrate your accomplishment. It does not matter how big or small. Just calibrate the celebration to the appropriate size of the accomplishment and you will be fine.

Everyone likes to hear praise they accomplishment, nobody dislikes a celebration – even small ones – to acknowledge that fact. Just take a moment, recharge and move on to the next thing. Try it.