Tooting Your Horn
*If you’d rather watch or listen, click here.
Today I’m going to talk about something that will make a lot of people uncomfortable. Sorry, but I'm starting to think the subject is a lot more important than I originally thought.
Recently, I’ve had a lot of deadlines - several more than I usually have. I have no one to blame but myself for overbooking my days. And it’s not the worst thing in the world because they’re all paid projects, it’s just that so many of them are supposed to be finished around the same time. Yikes!
I completed one of those projects last night, but it wasn’t until this morning that I took a moment to appreciate what I had accomplished. I originally planned to turn in the project tonight, but everything fell together yesterday so much easier than I thought it would, so I sent it out early without too much thought.
This morning I woke up feeling like I had done something amazing! And ya know what? I had!
When was the last time you allowed yourself to be proud of a job well done?
Every so often, I’ll be listening to a podcast and the topic of celebrating yourself will come up. Several people I follow have touted the value of rewarding yourself each time you reach a goal, big or small.
I have giant goals, so completing this particular project last night didn’t feel party-worthy. But today, I’m thinking that we should be celebrating all the things.
When it comes to others though
I hear myself congratulating others all the time. When they ask for a little bit more time to finish something I’m waiting on, it’s no problem.
I’m willing to offer grace to everyone else, except me. Every time I complete something, I move on to the next step without so much as a backward glance or a congratulations. That’s sad.
We should be taking the time to pat ourselves on the back more often. For some, it can be a major hurdle just to get out of bed in the morning. For others, it might be completing three things on your to-do list that day. No matter what it is you’re trying to achieve, I hope you take a moment to reward yourself every time you jump over that hurdle.
Today, when I got in my car, I danced to the music playing on my radio as I drove. Tonight, my reward will be reading a chapter in the book I’d like to curl up and read and ignore all my responsibilities. Not a huge reward, but it’s something special that I’ve been hoping to make time for. The giant reward will be coming through, and it’s just a few short months away. Stay tuned for more about that!