We have calendars full of tasks and items to be done. However, we must take time and celebrate achievements. Whether we have successes daily or rarely, it is worth our time to revel in the positive feelings from a job well done. No time is better for this bit of “self-indulgence” than year-end review and planning. Looking forward and planning for the new year is important. However, we can learn a lot and build confidence by embracing what we accomplished in the prior year.
Why We Celebrate Achievements
One can argue that getting something done is not worth a celebration. Do you celebrate brushing your teeth or making your bed? No, we do not. However, we could achieve a little boost of positive feelings if we did. There are plenty of examples in daily life. We see people achieve something that might seem small to us, but they are drunk with joy.
For example, consider the “Rudy” story in youth sports. There are many instances where a child struggles in a sport. They are the ones that rarely score or find success. Think of them as the underdog. It is not uncommon for the crowd to go wild when these players achieve success. What would happen if we saw that sort of celebration more often in our lives?
Keep It Special
Too much of anything is not good. That includes celebration. Thus, it would be exhausting to throw a party celebrating every little achievement. Nevertheless, it is good to mark victories regularly. This action will help drive us forward and keep up morale. The challenge is that many of us are so focused on the next problem to solve that we move on from a victory without spending time enjoying it. A sports example would be a team winning a championship, and they immediately go to practice for the next game. Sizeable victories are valuable motivational tools, so we need to embrace them.
Learning From Past Achievements
This podcast (and site) is focused on becoming better developers. However, motivation is nice but is not a direct path to getting better. Therefore, we should also look to past victories for examples of future success. Much of our experience is an exercise in learning what not to do. I would argue that the vast majority of our time in life is spent working through failures to find success. That brings us to the value of those rare successes. It is much faster to reach a destination by knowing where to go instead of where not to go. That is why success breeds success.
It is not self-indulgence to sit in a victory for a while or to relive it during our annual reviews. Instead, it is an opportunity to highlight direct paths to success that can be used to plan for more of those situations in the year ahead.
