Personal High Five and a Fist Pump!

We get down on ourselves when things don't go our way, we're all guilty of it.  It's a normal reaction to be disappointed or sad.  The more dramatic people will take it to the extreme and let it ruin their day, week or year.  How you react, or preferably, how you respond is up to you.  What I question is, why don't we have the same level of happiness and excitement when things do go our way?  I'm not just referring to the big things, like being accepted to the university of your choice or landing your dream job.  Those events are easy to get excited and happy about.  I'm referring to the small daily or weekly victories that get you one step closer to achieving your goals. 

What small daily victories?  If you promised yourself on Sunday that you would wake up early Monday morning so that you could get a work out, and you did it.  No one is going to come to your door and congratulate you and most people won't even know you achieved what you committed to achieve.  Imagine you told yourself you would read a few pages of a book each day so that you could complete one book a month, and you did it.  These are small daily victories that get you one step closer to achieving your goals.  

In order to stay motivated consistently, day in and day out, you need to acknowledge your small victories and give yourself the proverbial "personal high five".  Zig Zilgar said it best when he mentioned that, “People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily."  We are all in a constant push to stay motivated, when things don't go our way we sometimes get frustrated and lose some of that motivation.  That is why it is critical that you acknowledge your personal victories and use them as fuel to keep you inspired on your quest to success.

You might get bothered if someone doesn't recognize your contribution to a project at work or you don't get the pat on the back for a job well done.  You need to face it, people are not always going to be there handing you a trophy every time you do what you are getting paid to do.  The way to constantly stay motivated is to give yourself a personal high five when you know you kicked butt on a project or you closed a major deal.  Although you could physically give yourself the high five, your preference, what I mean is to congratulate yourself and psych yourself up for the next goal.  You also need to review the whole process of how you achieved what you did.  Highlight what you did amazingly well and underline where you could improve.  Always give yourself honest feedback while simultaneously giving yourself a personal high five.

This personal high five thing has nothing to do with bragging about successes or being humble.  I am talking about personal self-motivation that allows you to feel good about your accomplishments while fueling you with the inspiration to continue progressing forward towards your goals.  My opinion is that in an effort to be overly-humble, many people give up some of their confidence.  If they feel too good about a success or if they do a fist pump when they've completed something, some may construe it as bragging.  Get out of here!  I say, fist pump anyways!

I want you to scream "YES!!!" when you score these mini goals in your life.  You need to pump yourself up after every small win because, quite frankly, no one will do it for you.  If you are going to get sad when you lose or things don't go your way, you better be fist pumping when they do.  Cheers to a great weekend!