Do You Forget to Celebrate the Small Stuff?

Your first anniversary, the first steps your one-year-old took, the signing of your first home mortgage, your first kiss. These are all milestones we celebrate throughout our lives - but why? Is it our constant need for a sign of progress or our love of celebration?  Could it simply be the human condition we move forward in our lives in search of some sort of meaning and affirmation of our accomplishments? Milestones, goals, or hurdles we overcome exist in every society across the globe and they seem to appear to be more ambitious as the universe gets older.

Your new business can be linked to when humans were living in caves and without fire.  It’s sometimes in disarray and fighting for its existence without the proper tools to make it work as well as you would like.  But somehow it plods forward just like humans through our evolutionary and socialization march towards modern living.  The cave men had a milestone, albeit they may seem more modest by our standards, they were no less important to their very life than the milestones we reach.

Early civilizations may have reached their milestones using a specific type of animal skin or fur lining that created better warmth and protection from the weather; and today your business may have used a better search engine optimization process to bring more visitors to your website.  Comparisons of the two may seem like a stretch, but it really isn’t.  They used the skins and fur for their very survival and you used technology to create a revenue stream that will bring you money and the things you need for survival.  While there may be no formal celebration for some of these milestones, they are real and they keep you moving forward.

I can remember signing my first big business deal in 1997 on some side street in Bayside NY.  It was raining and the mist was forming on the cars, the document I was signing had gotten damp because we chose to sign them outside leaning up against my new business partner’s car. That was a milestone I will never forget. I didn’t throw a party or have any big fanfare; fireworks were set off in my mind about the accomplishment and journey that lay ahead.

Here are a few tips that can be helpful when deciding on what to do when reaching milestones:

1.  Throw a private celebration (in your mind) on a regular basis for the things you get done and you will have a feeling of accomplishment more often. I still don’t do it enough, but I’m working on it.
2. Milestones don’t have to be life altering and dramatic, celebrate things that may otherwise seem benign, but make you feel good.
3. Don’t peg your milestones to someone else’s dreams and hopes, make your own.

Although many of us don’t like to hear it, for the most part things take time to develop. Cherishing those smaller moments and victories can make those large milestones that much sweeter. Being able to appreciate and look back at everything you’ve done, how hard you’ve worked and how it’s all came together to get you where you are today is one of the most rewarding feelings you’ll ever have.