When was the last time you truly celebrated a win? You know, celebrated more than the momentary feeling of “YAS!” and then got back to work or whatever you were doing beforehand. When was the last time you actually gave yourself time to dance, treated yourself to something special, or took a day off to pamper yourself for achieving something?

Giving yourself the time and space to celebrate the things going right allows you to create even more wins. Here’s how.

Positive Reinforcement

Your subconscious needs to know that wins equal rewards. Keep in mind that your brain is about 95% subconscious, which means your behavior is largely dictated by processes you don’t even consciously think through. So in order for you to make sure you keep the wins coming, you have to get your subconscious to believe that wins are worth the time, effort, and unknowns that could be seen as safety risks. That means in your subconscious mind, the rewards of the win need to far outweigh the risks of taking action. That’s why celebrating your wins is so important. When you don’t make time to celebrate and get that positive reinforcement, your mind doesn’t learn why creating more wins is vital or even helpful. 

Building Your Confidence Muscle

Confidence is more than a feeling. It’s a practice. By celebrating your wins and allowing yourself to feel confident in your ability to achieve, you build your confidence muscle. The more you recognize that you’re doing something well, the more you can raise your belief, and take more effective action. This can create a snowball effect of wins. 

Weather the Storm

Life is challenging and complicated. Success isn’t created without failures along the way. Whenever you run into a challenge that’s particularly difficult, it’s powerful to have the memories of previous wins in your mind. You can look back on your experiences and remember how you overcame challenges in the past, and what you felt like right before breaking through to your win. Celebrating your wins allows you to honor and remember the journey of getting there so that when the chips are down, you can find the belief in yourself to keep going for your next achievement. 

How To Celebrate Your Wins

When you think of celebrating, what comes to mind? Images of drinks with friends, wild dancing, and questionable choices? Or something else entirely? The truth is, you have your own unique ways of celebrating that will feel good to you, and there may be a bit of a discovery process involved. Here are some guidelines that can help you find your favorite ways to get your self-praise on. 

First, look at things that make you feel genuinely excited. What have you been wanting to do or experience that would make your whole day? Is there a specific restaurant you’d love to try, or is there a book you’ve been itching to read? Is there an event that’s been calling your name, or is there something on your wishlist that you’ve been drooling over? All of these things can be great celebrations when you stay in the gratitude of the experience. 

Secondly, consider experiences that make you feel relaxed, relieved, and appreciated. Do you love massages or taking time to make art? Do you feel extra special when you get a facial or spend time writing? Is there a log cabin in the woods you’d like to treat yourself to for a weekend where you can unplug and just be? This rewards your mind and body in the way of creating release and relief. When your subconscious learns that you get a break when you get a win, creating more wins becomes something worth achieving.

Lastly, celebrate wins of all kinds, no matter how big or small you perceive them to be. If you create too much space between bigger, more cumulative wins, then your subconscious can start to see the win as not worth the time and energy you put into it because the win is so far away. By building in incremental celebrations, the journey becomes easier on your mind because there are closer targets to hit. One way to make sure you celebrate all of your wins is to create a list of the celebrations you’ll have as you hit your smaller goals on the way to bigger achievements. This creates a plan of action that’s clear and motivating.

How are you going to celebrate your wins?