Celebrating the Wins

How often do you celebrate your wins?

Only really big ones or the ones that have zings?


What is the right way to celebrate or how often?


I do not think that there is an answer to these questions. I know the answer is not only the big ones. There are so many things that happen without celebration and maybe that is not a good thing. I remember school and the pizza parties that were the best celebrations of all time. Why? It was a change from the normal schedule.


There was a point in my career when there were Starbucks Fridays to celebrate making it through the week. It was a difficult job that required lots of quiet and not lots of conversations. Fridays were different for the few minutes that we held the warm cups of coffee knowing it was a mini celebration of that week. It did not matter what happened or how that day went. The thing that mattered was the celebration.


I like celebrating things. The small wins and the big wins or even a loss that was handled with grace. I think the acknowledgment is a big part. My family will tell you that we have many traditions that started as one thing and morphed into something different. We have pizza/movie nights on Fridays. Why? I was too exhausted to cook or think of something to cook. Now, it is a tradition and it is a celebration of the week and going into the weekend.


I try to celebrate the wins at work with different traditions. I ordered pretty straws to put in my drinks because it makes me want to drink my water which helps me not have a headache at the end of the day - win! I celebrate the little daily zings like someone telling me that they did not click on a phishing email. I do a little dance because the effort to train and get everyone on the same page is not small and to see the results is absolutely amazing. I also have sticky notes where I cross off tasks that I have finished and tear the notes up into tiny pieces once everything is crossed off. I hit a big milestone in compliance efforts and I was on cloud nine for hours - that win was celebrated with candy and new pens.


I am not sure why celebrating wins and zings is not done more often. Maybe it is because doing your job is not seen as something that should be celebrated. I think it should be. Jobs are hard at times and wins need to be celebrated every time. Pizza parties or new pens or pretty straws. Whatever it is that makes you happy - celebrate. Celebrate that you drank your water or did not yell at anyone during the meeting you hate going to - celebrate all those things. Live in the happiness of the zings like getting a good parking spot or two treats for the price of one out of the vending machine.


Celebrate the fact that you did the thing.

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