Don't Wait To Celebrate

"Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal." - Unknown

I cannot express how important this piece of advice has been for me over the past couple of years. The true nature of it has sunk in even more with each goal I set. I have often been the type to set goals but not give myself a chance to be excited along the way until I got ‘there’ wherever that may have been each time. So most times that I achieved a goal I always found myself less than satisfied because I never found myself as excited or proud of myself as I thought I would feel. When we block ourselves from feeling excitement in the early stages of our goals then it makes it much harder to access those feelings once we’ve accomplished them. Or if we are able to have that sense of relief and feeling proud of ourselves it may not last very long leading us to create the next goal so that we can keep striving for that certain feeling we are aiming for. 

When I allow myself to express celebration for every step towards my goal I often find that the achievement itself is that much more satisfying because I’m honoring each step along the way. Years ago year I had set out to take an online Integrative Wellness & Life Coaching course. I started this course right before finding out that I would be moving to St. Louis, Missouri and that my mother had cancer and would be starting chemo treatments within weeks. Needless to say I didn’t make it very far into the course before being completely side-tracked.

6 months later when I realized the course should have been completed I asked for an extension and then got to work on it. Every time I completed a module or an assignment I felt so much joy and celebration for the progress. I would find little ways to celebrate and cheer myself on. It became not only a joy to be in the process but to acknowledge that despite every other change going on in my life that I was still able to work towards a very big goal of mine. By the time I was able to turn in all of my assignments and complete my final exam I was elated. I was extremely proud of myself for just completing such a task at a very challenging time in my life. Being a part of that course brought me so much joy and actually helped me through all of the other challenging moments in life. 

When I received the notification that I had passed and was officially certified to be an Integrative Wellness & Life Coach my joy was beyond compare to anything else I had accomplished. Maybe it was because I had secretly for years wanted to be a Coach or maybe it was because I allowed myself to celebrate every little step that I found myself proud of, because any progress we make towards our goals is something to celebrate.

Now tell me, where do you need to give yourself permission to celebrate and be proud of yourself?

Namaste,

Laura