Welcome, I’m Sheri and I’m so glad you’re here!
What do you consider something to be worth celebrating? ‘Worth’ is an interesting word. The definition of worth from Oxford is simply, “The level at which something or someone deserves to be valued.” And their definition of ‘Value’ is “One’s judgement of what is important in life.” So think about it. Do you deserve to be valued? How hard do you judge yourself and what you do? Do you deserve happiness and success?? Or feel you’re not good enough?
We are definitely our toughest critics. For most of us, our self-judgement is ruthless, heartless, always ready and willing to remind us we’re not enough. It’s like the story we were told as kids about the troll who lived under the bridge. It was there to scare us and keep us in our place. It would eat us if it could. We would think to ourselves, ‘wish I had a super power to kill that troll or fly over the bridge to get to the other side!’ Our imaginations would run wild with plans to destroy the troll or run so fast across the bridge that it couldn’t catch us. The funny thing about our thoughts is that there’s no running away no matter how fast we go. Wherever we go, they’re with us…always.
As adults, we’ve gotten so good at listening to our self-judging thoughts and believing them, truly accepting them as our truth and our story. What if we came up with a NEW story? What if we DID actually have a superpower that could kill the troll? Kill the self-judgement? Kill the doubt? Kill the self-hatred? What if, instead, we felt valuable, important and worthy of all the good stuff in life? What if we felt loved, encouraged and free. And what if we were fearless to TRY…try anything our hearts desired. Free to be visionaries of our own lives. To be actiontakers, planners and doers.
We wish it was just a snap of the fingers to change our mindset. Changing mindset takes nonjudgmental practice and unwavering patience. We have to retrain our minds and our bodies to think and feel differently. What works best for creating SUSTAINABLE change?
Celebration is our superpower!!! When we celebrate something, we’re rejoicing in its value. We are giving it worth. It was a job well done, acknowledging the hard work involved and the time taken to achieve it. We tend to celebrate the big stuff with no problem like: weddings, graduations, work promotions or a fat pay check, buying a new house, having a baby, retirement and so on. We celebrate by having parties, dancing, eating decadent cake and giving recognition to these monumental achievements and life changing experiences. Celebrations make us feel happy and hopeful, and they are so incredibly mood-lifting!
CASE STUDY “CAMERON”
We had a client who was in sales and a real pro earning upwards of $100k per month, but she was miserable and always felt she wasn’t doing enough, making enough and succeeding enough. As a result, she was constantly living in fear that she would ‘lose it all and be left with nothing.’ Her real dream was to become an entrepreneur and go out on her own but her self-judgement and not feeling enough kept her stuck. Sure she was making tons of money, but she was miserable and in quick sand. Stuck in her over-thinking and thoughts of self-doubt. We also discovered she wasn’t having any fun in her life and wasn’t celebrating her achievements. She thought fun was frivolous and celebrations should be reserved for when she retired and moved to the beach. Change in mindset was the key to transforming her life NOW to what she’d always dreamed of but never thought could be a reality.
STEP 1 - We began having her visualize her dream life in our sessions and in daily morning meditations. Her dream was to quit her sales job and start her own business. It was to sell her house and move to the beach. It was to have more time to spend with her friends, her wife and her aging parents. It was to learn to surf and golf. The journey to getting there looked so daunting and overwhelming to her. So out of reach. But guess what, it wasn’t.
STEP 2 - We had her create a morning ‘brain dump’ where we asked her to write down absolutely everything she had to do…a massive list complete with the things she had to do that day to those that had to be done within a year’s time. From simple things like feeding the dogs that morning to larger tasks like setting up her LLC and all the pieces that go into the setup of a new business. To looking for a relator to listing her house. To setting up date nights with her wife, 2 dinners with her friends and golf lessons. Once she had this brain dump down on paper, this would be a living, breathing list for her to revise, check off and add to daily.
STEP 3 - Once she had a master list, we asked her to pick the top one priority for the day and create action steps underneath it, numbering them. The final number would read, “YOU’RE DONE, CELEBRATE!” Regardless of the outcome, celebrate!
STEP 4 - We asked her to think about how it would feel to have completed this top priority and then write those feelings next to that goal as a reminder. Every time she felt discouraged or bogged down by the tasks, that statement would be there to remind her WHY she’s doing this and how great it will feel once it was completed.
STEP 5 - We had her design celebrations to have afterwards. She chose many things to do throughout this action step process. Some of which were 5-min dance parties with her wife, shooting 10 baskets out back, eating 2 chocolate covered cherries (her favorite!), 10 minutes in the foot massager her wife got her for Christmas…you get the point.
It will be different for everyone but the bottom line was, it made her feel great. She was teaching herself that feeling good and having fun could always be a part of the most boring, scary or overwhelming tasks on her to-do lists from the biggest to the smallest. And if the outcome left her flat on her face, she celebrated the movement regardless.
You celebrate the winning, the failing, the trying. You celebrate the lessons. You celebrate the fact that you’re still here and ready to try again, more knowledgable than before. You reward yourself every…single…time!! You celebrate the journey. You celebrate the little steps ALONG with the finish line. But you celebrate. It teaches your mind and body that good feelings come from trying and you are always worth it every time!
Now that you have some clarity and new awareness, what are you going to do about it? Tag, you’re it!