Celebrate small successes
Today’s blog post is a subject that has been a struggle for me throughout my own life rebuilder journey. How to acknowledge and celebrate small successes.
I don’t know where you are on your journey of rebuilding your life; be that from a physical or an emotional injury, or maybe someone you love who’s hit rock bottom and you’re trying to support them and yet support yourself within that process, but I think you’ll relate to what I’m about to share with you.
After my first near death experience of the car accident I was left broken into a thousand pieces. I was disabled, bound to a wheelchair, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t take care of myself, and couldn’t even get myself out of bed on my own.
It was an extremely challenging time physically and emotionally which overtime has affected the way I looked at life – where I fit within it, and how can I get out of this situation and get my life under control.
If you experienced a blast radius event in your life, where in a fraction of a second your life changed, then you can relate to my experience.
What I noticed was that I began to judge myself. My personal language became negative, shaming, and blaming. It was so severe that within a few months I lost my hope of ever getting my life back.
This is the ‘Dark night of the soul’ and we all experience it in different ways. The bottom line is that we do not want to accept where we are and always want to be ‘somewhere else’ but here.
I’ve seen this across the board with fellow life rebuilders and people that have had to rebuild their life from rock-bottom.
We fabricate immense goals that for the most part are not realistic because they are a projection of where we want to be without accepting where we are now. These goals set us up for failure, negative self-talk, and will actually hold us back on our Life rebuilder journey.
This is why today the subject of my post is ‘learn to celebrate small successes’.
This sounds so cliché and you may say, yes Erez, I’ve heard this a million times but really – celebrate small successes – what are you talking about?
For whatever reason we, particularly in the Western world, are conditioned to measure life based on external achievements and goals, and the greater they are the better, right?
You know the drill – I need to become a millionaire, I need to run a marathon, climb Everest, do an Ironman race, juggle 10 things at the same time because… you know what I mean.
Well the reality is that these may be nice to have goals but for those of us who are rebuilding our lives, this is a dark place to occupy.
The reason is that for us the small successes are gold and if we fail to see that and gravitate to those immense external goals we will suffer more.
To help you establish a strong base to identify, set and celebrate small successes I created this free workbook for you. I started to implement this strategy in my life 2 years ago and have recommended it since to all my coaching clients. The results speak for themselves. This is my gift to you – I hope you’ll find it useful.
Get it HERE
After my heart attack, getting out of bed was a huge goal for me, walking 10 minutes was my marathon, and feeding my body with nutritious food to assist my healing was a stretch. However, if you don’t see these as ‘good enough’ goals and always strive to be somewhere else then here, you’ll suffer, and trust me, I’ve been there too many times.
If you pick up the phone and call a friend or a family member after being deep in your darkness and didn’t want to speak with anyone – this could be a mega goal for now. Go for a short walk, give yourself a break and being ok with it could be another. These are small goals that add up and when we allow ourselves to see them as good enough and actually celebrate when we achieve them – life begins to look worthier.
You begin to see the power of small steps and respect yourself for achieving them without self-degradation.
This journey is yours. Do not compare it to anyone’s else. The lessons you seek are here. Stay the course and never give up.
To help you establish a strong base to identify, set and celebrate small successes I created this free download for you – get it HERE
Your ever well wisher
Erez