The Importance of Celebrating Your Accomplishments

High performing professional women are hardworking, committed, and focused on delivering stellar results however, many are reluctant to claim their own accomplishments. In the book, “How Women Rise” by Sally Helgesen, professional women often shy away from any semblance of “tooting their own horn” or “stepping into the limelight.” In this article we share eight reasons why learning to celebrate (and share) business accomplishments are important for career success.

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1.????? Celebrating Boosts Morale and Motivation:? Taking time to slow down and appreciate the completion of key deliverables, noting how challenges were overcome, as well as the opportunity to document your own personal lessons learned (e.g. new skills, and what was gained in professional development) provides a sense of validation and recognition for your hard work and efforts. By being the first to recognize and appreciate your hard work, it provides a level of personal satisfaction that promotes the willingness to discuss and share with others as it makes a good storyline for how you solved problems with creativity and used your ability to influence outcomes to deliver results. Regularly acknowledging and celebrating accomplishments can contribute to a positive feedback loop, increasing your motivation and productivity in future tasks.

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2.????? Celebrating Builds Self-Confidence: Recognizing and celebrating achievements inherently helps to build self-confidence and a positive self-image. When the “imposter monster” attempts to creep in and create doubt with feelings of “why am I here” or “I don’t belong here,” being able to recall to yourself the good work you have accomplished year over year with increasing levels of responsibility (e.g. project scope, multimillion dollar budgets, or landing high profile contracts) it reminds you of your capabilities and reinforces the belief that you can overcome any future challenges with success as well as achieve your goals.

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3.????? Celebrating Cultivates a Continuous Growth Mindset: Celebrating accomplishments can serve as a reminder of the importance of setting and pursuing goals. Taking time to make note of your milestones helps to shape your career journey by showing how far you have come while leaving room to explore how much more there is to learn and remaining open to new experiences & exposure opportunities. Celebrating your own accomplishments encourages you to establish new objectives and work towards them with enthusiasm, demonstrating that success is worth celebrating.

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4.????? Celebrating Strengthens Relationships: creating a regular practice of celebrating and sharing your achievements with friends, family, and colleagues fosters a sense of community and support. Celebrating together enhances relationships and creates a supportive network that can be valuable during both good and challenging times. The importance of cultivating a community of support also makes it easier to ask for help or assistance when needed. The people who are invested in your success also desire to know that their support has made a difference. The spirit of humility, grace, gratitude, and reciprocity which encourages the hearts of others to continue to have influence while feeling that they too can be supported whenever needed in the future.

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5.????? Celebrating Provides a Sense of Closure: most major projects are recognized and acknowledged at the team level during closeouts, but there is also the moment of opportunity to reflect upon your specific contribution to the overall effort by capturing your key deliverables and role played during the effort. This closure can be an important form of preparing for transition prior to beginning new challenges and preventing burnout by ceremonially checking things off of the list. This closure celebration provides an opportunity for self-reflection, allowing you to assess what worked well and what you can improve upon in future endeavors. This reflective practice is crucial for personal and professional development.

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6.????? Celebrating Inspires Others: by taking time to celebrate your accomplishments, you can inspire and motivate others around you. Everyday role models are needed especially for professional women and by seeing more examples of women sharing their stories, successes, losses, and lessons informs future generations of women in the workforce to do things more strategically and with less self-imposed burden than what was experienced by previous generations of working women. Sharing your successes can serve as a source of inspiration for your peers, colleagues, not to mention keeping your leadership looped into your progress in real-time so that readiness for what might be next will be easier to sell and opening doors of opportunity for you in the process.

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7.????? Celebrating Improves Well-Being: The ongoing practice of celebrating accomplishments contributes to your overall well-being by reducing stress and by promoting a positive work-life balance. It cultivates the habit of pausing with intentionality to take breaks, to relax, and enjoy the fruits of your labor, promoting a healthy and holistic lifestyle.

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8.????? Celebrate by Documenting Your Own Receipts: whenever we go shopping, we obtain a “receipt” after the purchase. Celebrating your own accomplishments is a way of calling forth and documenting your "receipts" of the hard work you have delivered. Might I add that by celebrating and sharing in the right spaces, you leave little doubt in the minds of others about your capability in getting the job done well and you leave little room for others to claim your results as their own. The habit of being willing to “see and recognize the full body of work” that you have produced will enable you to hold up a mirror as a reflection that you are the one driving, delivering, and accomplishing results. In bringing your day-to-day present with you in the midst of fast paced environments, you become keenly aware of how you are operating and orchestrating events to move the needle forward for the organization and also for yourself in the process.

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In Summary, celebrating your accomplishments is a vital aspect of maintaining a healthy personal as well as achieving a fulfilling professional life. By extending the practice beyond the borders of work will empower a more synched and less compartmentalized life experience. The invitation to show up and be present in our own lives means savoring and “stopping to smell” the roses that we ourselves have planted, and then sharing those “roses” with others to also appreciate and be inspired by.

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Sheryl Brinkley is a Women's Leadership Pipeline Builder & Sustainer and a Career Acceleration Catalyst Specializing in Hi-Potential & Mid-Level leader progression into Sr. Level & C-Suite positions. She is an Executive & Positive Intelligence Mental Fitness Coach supporting her clients in their holistic self-actualization pursuits while deepening self-awareness for maximal leadership impact.