Celebrate Success

What are you celebrating today?

My company just added a new client for whom we’ll be designing residential projects. They are not just any client, but a nationwide, progressive and innovative company that will challenge us. They are the kind of client that everyone wants to work for and my team now has that opportunity.

And to celebrate this accomplishment, guess what we did?

Nothing.

That’s right, nothing. Just like we always do, we just went straight to work.

Now I guarantee you everyone is excited about getting to work with this client, but we should have taken a moment to celebrate this milestone.

Missing this celebratory opportunity got me thinking about the value of celebrating success. The advantages of this in businesses is well documented, from the small victories to large successes.

We should to take employees to lunch when they achieve educational and practice goals such as advanced degrees and licensing. And we need to throw a party when the last set of construction plans are shipped, the last article written, and the software finally distributed for public use.

Why? To recognize our achievements publicly, strengthen our team connectivity, build morale, and motive us to do it again.

These celebrations are for everybody.

They are for the employees who worked hard to make the success happen.

They are for the public to know what your company’s capabilities are.

They are for the “second tier” participants, such as family members and other employees, who were not directly involved in the success, but helped by being supportive and freeing up the team to focus on the successful project.

And, of course, the celebrations are for you.

If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, you need to celebrate success-but most of us don’t. For me “tooting my own horn” is not my style. I think I should be satisfied with the knowledge that I was successful and let my record stand on its own.

Boloney

In some form or fashion, we need to celebrate our successes. We need to celebrate it with our team and make sure appropriate recognitions are dispensed. But we need to pat ourselves on our back too.

We had a dream; we took risks, we worked hard, so we need to celebrate personally.

The question is how. Some people take a trip with loved ones to the beach or mountains. Some buy expensive stuff like cars, condos, and watches. And some treat themselves to long golf trips and music festivals.

Those are all good and acceptable but. . .

Our lives are full of celebrations. We celebrate birthdays, weddings and our nation’s independence. We celebrate births and deaths. We celebrate anniversaries of married couples and towns and states. All religions have specific days they honor with celebrations. So, it is only natural we celebrate events at work.

The Bible places a lot of emphasis on celebrating. One example of celebrating work is found in the story of Nehemiah 12 where they finished a big project (rebuilding the wall of the Temple in Jerusalem) and they celebrated with music, dancing and eating.

But God’s idea of celebrating is a little more than we currently practice. He wants us to celebrate every day all the time. Psalms 118:24 says.

This is the day that the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

We need to celebrate big successes in a big way, and little success in a little way. We need to take time to celebrate our personal successes, so we are rejuvenated and ready for our next success.

But, let us not forget that every day is a celebration. God has placed us in a position to be successful, and for that, we need to celebrate and rejoice.