Welcome to Friday 411, issue #140. In 4 minutes, with 1 insight and 1 action, you’ll learn how pausing to celebrate progress can help you power through your hardest work.
1 Insight
When progress is uncelebrated, relentless drive becomes a curse.
A few weeks ago, I (Garland) had dinner with friends. One of them, Emile, shared about a major project that had consumed his life for months. When I asked what he planned to do once he finished, he didn’t hesitate.
“Move on to the next project,” Emile said. Then he looked at me like the question itself was strange. “What else would I do?”
I told him something Dorothy taught me many years ago: you celebrate.
I’m not naturally good at celebrating. For years, I operated exactly like Emile — finish something big, move on to the next thing. My reward for completing a major project was simple: more work. Over time, that approach wore me down. Instead of a sense of accomplishment after a big win, I had rewarded myself with exhaustion.
Dorothy, on the other hand, can find just about any excuse to celebrate something. Over time, she has helped me see how slowing down to recognize progress changes everything about how you experience your work.
Emile asked for an example of how I use celebration as motivation, so I told him about publishing our most recent book, Unleashed Leadership.
I collect crazy baseball hats — about 92 of them at last count. Many came as gifts from friends or clients, but some represent rewards I gave myself for accomplishing something meaningful. When we started writing Unleashed Leadership, I picked out a hat from the Worcester Wicked Worms to celebrate the book’s publication.
Here’s the important part: I bought that hat before we finished the book. I kept it in the box, tucked away in my office closet. Anytime I felt stuck, frustrated, or ready to quit, I would pull out the box and look at the hat, smiling at the representation of the completed goal I was working so hard to reach.
After a minute, I’d put it back and get to work. On October 24th, when the book officially published, I pulled out the hat, peeled off the stickers, and wore it for the first time. It still sits near me today — a reminder of the accomplishment and the struggle.
When I finished the story, Emile stayed quiet. After a pause, he admitted that when he received a big promotion earlier in his career, he never celebrated at all. He just worked harder and grew more afraid that someone would figure out he wasn’t good enough for the role, which, of course, wasn’t true at all. Taking a moment to celebrate himself could have helped him stop questioning himself.
The Gift that Becomes the Curse
We see this same tendency in leaders all the time. You push yourself hard to hit monthly targets and accomplish big goals. You exert Everest-sized effort for months on end to achieve your vision. Then, the moment you achieve it, you move on to the next mountain.
No pausing. No celebration.
That relentless drive is part of what makes you successful, and it’s a gift. But left unchecked, it becomes a curse. You need to slow down long enough to celebrate your success.
How to Celebrate
Just like I did with my hat, plan how you’ll celebrate before the win happens with four simple steps:
- Identify the big goal. Whether it’s the triathlon you want to complete (you sick, twisted masochist) or the revenue goal you want to hit, get clear on what success looks like.
- Choose the celebration in advance. Give yourself something tangible to look forward to when the work gets hard. It doesn’t have to be big and expensive. But it needs to feel celebratory. I chose a hat. Emile decided he would buy a really nice bottle of bourbon to celebrate the completion of his next project. Other people I’ve known reward themselves with concert tickets. Lots of people like to celebrate with a meal. But keep in mind, physical reminders carry more weight. They create lasting memories that outlive the moment. So even if its something that will disappear (like bourbon or dinner) keep a memento (like the bottle or the restaurant’s matchbox) to remind you of your accomplishment.
- Use the celebration to stay motivated. Put something that reminds you of your celebration in a place where you can see it. You don’t get to play with it until the goal is completed. But in the meantime, when challenges arise, use it as motivation of something to look forward to. That anticipation becomes fuel.
- Enjoy the celebration when you complete the goal. When you finally achieve the goal, enjoy it. I keep my Wicked Worms hat in my office as a celebration and reminder. It reminds me of all the hard work that writing a book entails and keeps me motivated for other challenges.
Dorothy and I are living out a celebration plan right now. Last year, we set a goal to create The Unleashed Community — a place where leaders could come together, participate in ongoing leadership training without waiting for a corporate engagement or conference. The last few months threw enormous obstacles at us, including Dorothy’s hospitalization and surgery. But yesterday, we officially launched.
We had set a goal to start with 20 leaders. Instead, we started with 58 members.
So in one week, we’re heading for our first visit to Key West to celebrate this milestone before we aim for the next target. We’ll watch beautiful sunsets, kayak through mangroves, and celebrate all our hard work.
And I’ll be wearing a new hat the whole time.
1 Action
What goal are you working toward right now? How will you celebrate when you get there? Follow the 4 steps to plan your next celebration.