You hit a milestone, then what?
4 steps to honor your achievements
In a recent conversation a friend shared an enormous milestone she’d accomplished by completing a triathlon for which she’d trained for months. She talked about the best part of the entire event – completing all three elements. She also touched on how she conquered her biggest fear: making it through the swimming segment, which she said was SO rewarding.
Before I could congratulate her, she changed the subject.
First she shared a deeply challenging personal situation. With no room to spare, she followed that up by telling me what her next goal would be: climbing another fourteener.
I felt like I’d been swept into a tsunami of emotions. My dear friend left no space to be congratulated or celebrate her efforts. Instead, she brought herself down a notch with a tough situation, then immediately outlined her next challenge.
Sound familiar? You actually reach a goal you’ve set yourself only to seemingly dismiss it and move on without the opportunity to savor what you’ve been through and achieved.
You hit a milestone, then what?
Jim has been working on how he shows up as a leader, whether he gets the support he wants from his team or the C-Suite. In our coaching sessions, he’s discovered how much influence he has and he’s been using it to drive growth with his team.
When we met this week he shared that his group reached and beat a goal they’d set in the spring and how they were all getting a lot of attention.
In our team meeting, the CEO even jumped onto the call to congratulate all of us as a unit saying how much she admired our persistence through the process. It was absolutely wild!
As I wondered how they might be marking this event, Jim said they didn’t have time to celebrate because now they’re worried.
You see, the CEO wants a senior director from a cross-functional group to sit in on some of our meetings to learn more about how we accomplished this deal.
What gives you pause when you hear this from your leadership?
Clearly, they might try to use our strategies we worked so hard to craft!
He’d moved from elation to fear in a few minutes.
As we began to explore what might happen if the team chose to share their methods for the greater good of the org, Jim began to relax.
I’m noticing you’re breathing again. What would it look like to celebrate what you and your team just accomplished?
That’s when we shifted our focus to reflecting on what he and his team did so well. He established a way to share this success throughout the org and mark the date. And then he came up with a plan to personally thank each member of his team for their hard work to stick to their methods, regardless of the obstacles.
Wow, this really was a big win!
The celebration was underway.
THIS WEEK’S TOOL
4 steps to honor your achievements
Jim realized what some of us forget - to recognize a win and truly savor it.
First, reflect on how you got there. What was different this time? Who did you partner with? What did you bring with you to reach this place?
Second, share with others. Maybe it’s your team, your boss, your spouse, your best friend or your aunt. They want to know!
Third, mark the date. There’s something special about writing down when an important event takes place - for me it’s crucial if I want to remember!
And fourth, say thank you! Who supported you along the way? How did you get the chance to do this? And maybe the one to thank is yourself.
My takeaway
Milestones. They are so important in life and work - and I’m often among the first to brush aside wins of any size for a host of reasons. Not this week - today I’m reminded of a series of victories I want to acknowledge:
In choosing to reflect, share, commemorate and give thanks - the impact of these accomplishments are sinking in. I’m certain there will be new adventures tomorrow and by acknowledging what is going well today - I will be ready for whatever is in store.
The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
Oprah Winfrey