Remembering to Celebrate Our Successes

In the lives of ambitious and creative people, the view is often forward. The view, in fact, is often tunnel-visioned in the sense of the next project, the next step in the process. What we forget is that the process is likely to only end when we do. So we need to remember to take a step back and celebrate our successes.

That tunnel vision is a part of the reason we find success in our endeavors. Without it, we might only dream of the next project, the next big thing. Yet, even as we succeed (because the process of our vision continues in a forward direction,) it can often feel like we’ve never reached success. This is because we fail to stop and celebrate our accomplishments.

One of the best ways I’ve found to remember to celebrate my success is to mark my milestones beforehand, and treat myself for reaching them. These treats accumulate over the life of a creative project, giving me a sense of success.

For example, I recently finished the first draft of a novel I’ve been working on for a number of years. I use a Kanban board to organize my milestones and to help me to remember to reward myself. A Kanban board might be a bit much for some people; a simple list of milestones and ways to celebrate them taped up on a wall underneath the old egress window or held fast on the mini-fridge with your favorite magnet—wherever you…