How Well Do You Celebrate?
It’s December and if you’re like me, your calendars are chocked full of parties. These parties are meant to celebrate, but how well do you do it? I don’t mean how good are you at drinking or eating, I mean, how well do you create space to acknowledge your accomplishments, transitions and growth? Throughout the year the clients I work tend to go through a fair amount of transition and change. They changed jobs and careers, redesign their schedule or end or start new relationships. Post-transition, I always ask my clients how they celebrated their shift and in almost every case they answer in one of the following ways:
- “I don’t have time to celebrate.”
- “It didn’t dawn on me to celebrate this.”
- “I had a glass of wine. Does that count?”
The problem is that many leaders view celebrations as a luxury and forfeit them for something more pragmatic, like diving into their next project. But don’t be confused, celebrating has a very important purpose. Celebrating helps you mentally and emotionally integrate the transition or shift you’ve made. It creates space for you to soak up the transition in a meaningful way and gives your body and mind the pause it needs to shift gears. This why we celebrate major rites of passages: birthdays, bah mitzvahs, weddings and funerals. These celebrations help our system (our head, heart and soul) to organize and “file” the importance of the transition we’ve made. Sure, you can certainly function without it, but why would you want to? It’s not the size of the celebration, but rather your intent that matters. It doesn’t matter if you have a big party, a lovely meal out with your loved one or a simple stay-at-home evening. Spend a bit of time acknowledging (preferably verbally with someone else) your growth or shift. Here are some ideas of what you could talk about:
- What was life like before the transition?
- What did it take for you to make the shift (emotionally, mentally, spiritually or physically)?
- Show gratitude for how your life and the people in it have supported you (including all the synchronicities that took place).
The conversation doesn’t have to be too lengthy, rather it’s just time for your heart to open and let in the satisfaction, purpose and joy that your accomplishment created. And even if you’re not in the “joy” part of your shift, you can always cast a vision for what you want life to feel like. Think about it as giving thanks in advance. As we finish out our year, know that I will be celebrating too. I have so much to be thankful for and having you in my world is one them. I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday and great New Year.