069 | Celebrating Your Achievements

In a society that’s always looking for the next best thing—doing more, bigger, better—we often don’t take the time to acknowledge our achievements.

We accomplish something, and then we’re immediately looking to the next thing because this thing that we’ve accomplished isn’t enough.

But slowing down to actually acknowledge and celebrate your achievements can lead to achieving more. Not acknowledging your achievements can lead to achieving less in the future.

In this episode, we talk about some examples of achievements I haven’t acknowledged in my own life, why it’s important to celebrate your achievements, and a few tips to do just that.

Lightly edited transcript appears after the show notes.

Topics Discussed

• personal stories of not acknowledging my achievements
• why it’s important to celebrate your achievements
• a few tips to celebrate your achievements

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Resources mentioned

Lifestyle Freedom Starter Guide

Episode 63: Leaving the Law (Why I Quit My Job)

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Social media: @iamrhothomas on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Email: hello@rhothomas.com

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Lightly Edited Transcript

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show, I hope you are doing well, and having an amazing day so far. So today we are talking about celebrating your achievements. I have to say, this is something that doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m a recovering perfectionist, and I don’t know how many of you are like that, but considering the majority of you are lawyers with some other, you know high achiever professions, mixed in. I imagine that it’s probably something that you struggle with as well. So tell me if you can relate to this. I will bust my butt to achieve a goal. And then once I do, I’m immediately on to the next. A lot of times, I don’t take the time to even acknowledge what I’ve done, I might feel really proud in the moment, but then I’m over it and looking toward the next goal I’ve set for myself. Too often we downplay our achievements. We don’t think that they’re a big deal and so we don’t pay attention to them right. We do this thing, and then we are immediately looking to the next thing, because this thing that we’ve accomplished, maybe that we’ve even been wanting for a long time, isn’t enough. We’ve got to do something better. You might feel good about it for a few minutes, you might feel proud for a little while, and then you’re looking to the next thing on your list. I know so many of us do this because our society is all about the next best thing and doing more and bigger and better. And so I want to talk to you today about slowing down and really acknowledging and celebrating your achievements. As I said, this is something I’m working on so I want to share a couple of examples of this in my own life. If you’re following me on Instagram at I am rho Thomas, you may have seen last month when I left my job, that my husband surprised me with a whole happy retirement celebration. On my last day of work. And if you haven’t heard that story on why I left the law head back to Episode 63, where I explained it. But anyway we ordered out and he bought balloons and cupcakes and a banner, and it was just so sweet and so thoughtful, and I was completely surprised by the surprise, like was not expecting it at all. Because, leaving didn’t seem like that big a deal to me. Like, obviously it was a big deal that I was leaving this career that I had been working toward for so long and that I had been working in for almost 10 years, but in my mind, leaving wasn’t so big that he would surprise me with the celebration. My husband was shocked that I was surprised, and that I wasn’t expecting it because he just knew that I already knew he was going to do something, and that it wasn’t going to be a surprise. And he was telling me what a big deal it was that I had left my job. He’s like, this is basically the whole reason I started my podcast and why I was drawn to coaching, so that other lawyers would be able to have the freedom and flexibility to make a decision like this. And I didn’t even think about it that way. For me, it was just the next step in my journey, but he’s right. I mean I didn’t necessarily know that the freedom and flexibility. We’ve been working toward was going to lead to me leaving the law, but this is exactly what he and I had talked about five years ago when we talked about managing our money differently so that we had these types of options in our lives, and we could do what we felt was best for our family, without thinking about work and money and all that in the back of our minds. Another more recent example is I hit my October goal for my business in the first half of the month, and I met with my coach not too long after I hit the goal, and I was telling her about all these things that had happened in the week since we last met. And then, almost like an afterthought, I was like Oh yeah, and I met this goal. And she was like, Okay, maybe lead with that next time, rather than going straight into all these other things, that’s a big deal. And I realized that something I do often like downplaying my accomplishments or not recognizing them as a big deal and moving on to the next without really acknowledging what I’ve done. And so because I do this, I’m sure you also do this and I thought it would be helpful to have this conversation where we can really look at why it’s important to celebrate ourselves. It’s funny because I teach my clients to celebrate the wins that they have with their finances, no matter how small they think they are, but it’s not a separate thing, right, like it doesn’t have to be compartmentalized. Yes celebrate the wins that you have with your money. But also let’s celebrate these wins that you have in life. And it’s interesting to be in this position where I’m telling them like, oh let’s celebrate that like what are you doing this is a big deal, but then I’m doing the same thing where I’m not celebrating things I’ve done, which by the way is an excellent example of why it’s so helpful to have a mindfulness practice like journaling, where you can see what you’re thinking, on paper, or to have a coach like someone who’s able to be that objective third party who can see these things that you’re not seeing because you’re in your own brain, and personally I have both. Anyway, something that I tell my clients is, you don’t have to move heaven and earth before you can celebrate. You don’t have to get all the way to completing a goal to celebrate. You don’t have to pay off all of your debt or completely fund your whole emergency fund, or fully reach financial independence, or whatever other goal you have to celebrate, you can celebrate along the way. You paid off some of your debt, that’s huge, right you save the amount of money you want it to save this month. Great. You saved and bought this thing you want it to buy, like all of those things are worthy of celebration. It is important to celebrate your achievements for a number of reasons. The first and most obvious is that celebrating feels good, right when you celebrate your brain releases endorphins and you effectively show yourself that what you did is something to continue doing. When you don’t celebrate your accomplishments and you’re immediately on to the next you’re basically teaching your brain, that what you accomplished wasn’t important, and then that of course leads to less motivation to keep doing those types of things. Similarly, when you celebrate your achievements, you’re showing yourself, you know, providing evidence for yourself, that you can achieve things that what you’re doing is working, that you’re on the right track. All of that motivates you to keep going. And when you achieve one goal, it’s evidence that you can achieve the things you set your mind to. And again, it doesn’t have to be the ultimate goal that you’re working toward it doesn’t have to be that you paid off all your student loans and credit cards and you’re completely debt free. You paid off one loan that’s evidence that you can pay off the next loan and the next loan after that, until eventually you pay it all off. Another reason it’s important to celebrate your achievement is when we are so focused on the next thing, and all the things we haven’t done yet, we miss all the progress that we’ve already made that can lead to you believing you’re behind and feeling discouraged, and I’ve told you about this with our financial journey. I was so focused on all of these other people who had already accomplished their goals, and had a six figure net worth or they had already reached financial independence and we were in this huge hole. We had a lot of debt and I’m looking at them and thinking that we hadn’t done enough, and I was feeling miserable and discouraged because of it. But we had done a lot like I think at the time that I was really in the thick of comparing our situation to other people. We paid off over $50,000 or something like that, but because I was so focused on what we hadn’t done. I was ignoring, or maybe discounting the progress that we had made. So rather than always telling yourself what you haven’t done, and focusing on those things, celebrating highlights how much you’ve already done, which can boost your confidence and your momentum. The next thing is when you celebrate your achievements and actually look for things to celebrate it changes the way you see yourself. So rather than this story of never having done enough, you start seeing yourself as someone who’s always accomplishing things, and that shift in the way you see yourself. I say all the time right the way you see yourself is everything in terms of what you can accomplish. And the final thing is that when you celebrate yourself and you acknowledge your accomplishments. You can be an example of what’s possible for others. So you celebrating yourself, and recognizing the things that you’ve accomplished the goals that you’ve achieved can inspire someone else, they see you and this thing you’ve done and it’s like oh wow like they did that I could probably do that too. So now that we’ve talked about why it’s important to celebrate. Let me give you a few tips for celebrating or acknowledging your achievements. First for really big goals, try breaking them down into smaller milestones and celebrate as you hit those. So with student loans for example, often my clients will ask if they should consolidate their student loans. And typically, I recommend they keep them separate because having the loan separate is so helpful on the motivation front you’ve got more opportunities for wins and celebrations. Another real life example here. I didn’t consolidate my loans and I had 14 separate loans. My husband consolidated his so he just had this one big multi six figure loan right. Although I had 14 different loans, a lot of them were really small, and at one point we were knocking out a loan, a month, and getting those paid in full letters and celebrating pretty often. And then of course you know as we got to some of the larger amounts, it took a little longer to pay off, but those really quick wins early on and celebrating and acknowledging those helped to keep us motivated. So then by the time we got to my husband’s huge consolidated loan, which took us three years to pay off by the way, we already had so much momentum behind us, and so much evidence that we could do it, because we already done it, right, we paid off all those other loans already. Another tip is to review and evaluate what you’re doing, because there’s almost always something that could be celebrated. So if you’re looking at your day or your week your month specific tasks you’re doing, you can always pull out things that went well there. Those are things you can celebrate those are also things you can repeat, when you do this thing going forward. So I like the outcome of doing this, you know this way of doing something, so I’m going to repeat that next time I go to do it. Of course you also want to look at things you could improve going forward. But looking at the things that went well. There are likely areas that you could be celebrating that you’re overlooking and thinking, this is just what it is right or downplaying it as just part of life. The final thing, or the final tip that I’ll give you is that celebration doesn’t have to be some huge thing with all this fanfare, right, taking a minute to slow down and be present and acknowledge and reflect on this thing that you’ve done that you’ve accomplished this celebration. So give yourself time and space to look back and appreciate what you’ve done. It doesn’t have to be a big party or going out to dinner, or you know whatever other thing that you might think of when you think of celebration, celebrating yourself and the things you’ve accomplished can simply be acknowledging that you’ve done it, and really appreciating the version of you that accomplished that thing. I’ve reflected, after having this conversation with my husband, on the fact that I set this intention to create more flexibility in my life. And although I didn’t see this exact situation happening, of being in a pandemic and deciding to become a coach full time and leaving the law. I didn’t see that exact situation happening. But this is exactly what we’ve been working toward for the last five years. This is exactly the point of my whole coaching business. If you’re following me on Instagram, you may also have seen that we took a trip to the beach right after I left the firm. We actually hadn’t planned to go to the beach, we decided like two or three days before to go so that we can celebrate me leaving my job, and as paying off our loans. And I reflected on the fact that we decided a few days before a holiday weekend, to take a trip to the beach, and we didn’t worry at all about the financial aspect that is a huge accomplishment for us because just a few years ago we couldn’t have done that with my business, I reflected on the fact that this goal that I set for myself this month that I’ve already hit seems so far out of reach for me, this time last year where I am currently in my business versus last year, like my business is completely different, and it’s so interesting and cool to see how much I’ve grown in just a year, and the things that now are possible for me that seemed so impossible. Just a year ago. So I share all that with you to say, recognize and acknowledge all of the amazing things that you’re already doing in your life. It doesn’t have to be that you’ve hit every single goal that you set for yourself, you’re doing amazing things every day that you are completely ignoring, you’re doing amazing things and saying oh that’s just the way life is. This is how it’s supposed to be. You’re doing amazing things and not recognizing them as amazing. And as you do that and you tell yourself that the things you’re doing the achievements that you’re reaching, you know that this thing that you really wanted that you’ve worked so hard for doesn’t really mean anything. You are not motivating yourself to keep going. At least not in any sustainable way. Acknowledge the things that you’ve already done. These goals that you’ve accomplished. Don’t just keep beating yourself up to keep going on to the next thing, acknowledge all the things that you’ve already done in your finances, and in other areas of your life. And if this episode is really resonating with you, and you’re tired of beating yourself up for not being as far along with your money as you think you should be, and you’re ready to achieve the money goals you’ve set for yourself, while also acknowledging that you’re doing much better than you’re telling yourself, please reach out to me. I am here and I am available to help you. You can head to rho Thomas comm slash call and let’s schedule some time to chat. All right, so that’s it for this week’s episode if you haven’t already come connect with me on Instagram at I am rho Thomas, and on LinkedIn. Please also take a second to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review, both of which help others find the show, and please share this episode with a friend or two you think would find it useful, and if you share on social media, don’t forget to tag me. Okay, friend, as we close out, I pray that you will take some time to think about where you’re downplaying or not acknowledging your achievements. I pray that you will start acknowledging yourself and all the amazing things you’re doing. And as always, I pray that you continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth and live the life of freedom and choice, you deserve. Talk to you later.