The Importance Of Celebrating Your Successes

I’ve personally found that one of the most critical areas in which entrepreneurs and business owners let themselves down in is celebrating their successes. Improving on this one simple metric can add far more fuel for growth and greater achievements than pure hustle and hard work alone.

The Overachiever’s Achilles Heel

It is amazing what individuals can achieve when they really put their mind to it, and follow up with the hustle to make it happen.

No matter what business you are in, from real estate to investment banking or even nonprofit work, once you get going and start to see the results gain traction, that desire to keep pushing can become incredibly addictive.

You now know that you are capable of more, want to do even more, and refuse to settle for anything less than constant growth and improvement.

This is noble, and necessary if we are going to solve big problems. It’s good to be ambitious and never to settle. However, once you are in that zone and have those blinders on, you can suffer from tunnel vision. That strength and resolve can also be your achilles heel.

If you don’t intentionally keep it in check, it can bite you back at the worst time. Just ask Julius Caesar, any successful politician or major CEO.

The Bigger Picture & Creating a Culture of Celebrating Success

It takes a special kind of person and mindset to be an entrepreneur, leader and CEO. This insatiable hunger to achieve more is often learned along the way, and can be harnessed by anyone who commits to taking action.

That often winds up with these individuals constantly punishing themselves. They never give themselves a break or a pat on the back for their own successes. All they see is the track ahead of them, and that there is so much to do, and so many more people to help. They can often grow accustomed to not taking time to rest, treat themselves, or celebrate the small victories and goals on the journey. It’s almost as if there is some sort of immunity against these things where it’s like “Great, we hit this goal, now I know I can do even better, let’s set the bar even higher!”

Even if you don’t feel worthy of a break, there are many important benefits of celebrating success.

It makes it all worth it and fuels you to get to the next step. That will keep you going when you run into hurdles on the next leg of the journey.

It helps you maintain a spirit of gratitude, and makes you a far better person to be around and work with.

It anchors the great feelings of victory and ties those emotions to the tough work you have to do.

It makes it far more palatable for your staff, vendors and family to stay along for the ride. It’s easy to forget that everyone else may not share the same insatiable drive towards the same goals. Our families, kids and teams sacrifice a lot to allow us to get there, and while they support us, they don’t necessarily share the same passion for those goals.

You’ve got to reward them too. Show them that you recognize the achievements you’ve made together, their hard work, and give them fuel to run with you to the next milestone. What motivates them can be a lot different from what motivates you. You may be driven by financial goals or the number of people you help and the impact you make. On the other hand, they may be driven by your praise, quality time with you, your recognition and rewards for their role. Understanding this is what really helps develop the top leaders from middle management and mediocre.

How to Do it

There is no one way to do this. It should be unique to you, your support network and organization. Find what drives and works for you and them.

Start by setting and reviewing your goals. That includes individual metrics, big leaps and smaller milestone victories. Make sure you share those with everyone involved, so they know what they are shooting for, and when they are achieving meaningful steps.

Establish a reward system for yourself. That may be a day out by yourself doing something non-work related that you really love but rarely allow yourself the luxury of. It could be a special family dinner or weekend getaway or new family car. If could be a mini award ceremony or a press release acknowledging your top performing team members or a bonus. 

Once you share your goals, make sure you work towards them. Otherwise your network will lose faith in you and the mission. As you achieve them, keep a success journal that will propel you in the future and record the traction you gain as things speed up for you with this nurturing culture.

Investment Opportunities

Find out more about investing in secured debt and real estate, go to NNG Capital Fund

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