Welcome to Tony Richards Messages

19 Celebrate Your Achievements Pt3

Welcome to this week’s message on leadership, self-confidence, and how to feel good about yourself everyday as you interact with people, in safety and comfort, at home and work.

Last week’s message was about Critical Step 1. Recognise and Embrace Your Uniqueness.

It is the step mostly closely linked to the very definition of self-confidence. (The mental attitude of having trust in, respect for, and reliance, on your own judgement.)

If you wish to be reminded of that message, it is also available back on the message page.

This week’s message is about Critical Step 2, Celebrate Your Achievements.

It is a wonderful message that provides us with an opportunity to practice a skill that we may not have used since childhood. It is the second of the Five Critical Steps that combine together to ensure your security within the Cycle of Confidence and Leadership.

As part of the previous messages on Celebration of Achievements we have looked at its use as a motivational tool in the workplace and how it provides personal support for the introspective view of your own value.

If we praise ourselves fearlessly, something will always stick. Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

Today’s message will provide an insight as to how natural and inspiring it can be to share the Celebration of Achievements with others.

We know that it is when achievements become instinctive that they become the catalyst for the growth of self-confidence. You will have seen examples of that in previous messages.

We also know, from your comments, that if you are low in confidence, or lead a more sheltered life, that Celebration of Achievements are uncomfortable if the focus of them is on you.

So today will help you to see what a wonderful and natural thing it is to share achievements as practice for being the focus of those celebrations. Take for example, the tedious labour of love represented by the purchase and wrapping of presents for any festive occasion.

The decision on what to buy, the type of wrapping applicable and your own, perhaps clumsy, (that’s me) abilities to wrap and make the presents look good, are all incidental once the job is complete. You have every right to look back and feel great satisfaction with your efforts, reflecting on the pleasure that you are going to share with the recipients at the appropriate time.

It is the journey you undertake for the realisation of your efforts or actions that will provide you with the real satisfaction of your accomplishments. Remember the definition of achievement is a satisfactory realisation of YOUR efforts or actions. The emphasis on YOUR is mine.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) who said the reward of a thing well done is to have done it.

Sharing in celebrations is instinctive, it is intuitive, and it is natural and spontaneous. Isn’t that why everyone always claps after experiencing moments of inspiration, for example, after the theatre, after a speech, or during and after sport?

The lessons you have already learnt in the sharing of celebrations from when you were young still hold good today. Suppose, for instance, that as you grew up you played board games or cards with others, and every time you won or lost during a game those present reinforced your value of yourself by supportive remarks on your ability.

How did you feel? Was it easier to suggest, at other times, that they bring out the Monopoly or chessboard because of that positive reinforcement?

If you did feel good, because of what they said, then you learnt how to treat others.

Now suppose you were criticised every time you lost and presented with sarcasm when you won. How did that make you feel? Were you less likely to ask them to play again because of those negative comments?

If you did feel hurt, then you’ve learnt how not to treat others in their endeavours. Either lesson can be used as positive knowledge for your treatment of others. The beauty of board or card games is that you must use your individual judgement for each move and decision, even if they’re team games. Being compelled to use your own judgement for making successful decisions builds confidence.

…knowing that you have accomplished something that could have been done only by you using your unique apparatus. That is really the centre of life, and those who never orient themselves in this direction are missing more than they will ever know.

Kenneth Allsop (1920-1973)

Celebration of your achievements will assist you to ensure that you’re sustaining a required level of certainty every time you complete the smallest task that you set out to accomplish. It’s not dissimilar to the build-up to the completion of a jigsaw puzzle. How do you feel each time you find a piece that fits?

The period of frustration looking for each piece is countered by the satisfaction not only of finding one that fits, but the overall pleasure of finishing the entire project. Each small moment of certainty, as it is coming together, adds to the overall conviction in your abilities when the puzzle finally gives in and is defeated by your brilliance.

Suppose you consider that it’s a good idea to celebrate achievements, but others, who are close to you, although talented, would never extol their capacities openly to the world.

If those close to you are so modest, you will appreciate the need for them to share achievements. You can seriously consider your ability to instigate their celebrations. You will be enhancing their self-esteem and encouraging their future exploits by your comments.

Please take the opportunity this week to think about your achievements and how much fun you’ve had celebrating, and most importantly sharing, those achievements. We would all love to hear about some of your celebrations, (keep them clean so I can pass them on) as we look forward to sharing the memories of celebrations with you.

Your stories – even short comments – are of great value to inspire others, and I would like to take the opportunity to include your stories, or comments, in upcoming episodes of ‘Special Interest Items’. They will be included as they fit into the theme of the message for that week.

Next week’s message will be about Critical Step 3. Writing a Vision Statement. This is the Critical Step that links the first three Steps together, to ensure you never loose sight of your real value as an individual, and also displays that value to everyone else you come into contact with.

It will be followed in coming weeks by Critical Steps Four and Five.

Until then, please continue to see yourself as a unique and remarkable person, who deserves to feel good about yourself every day.

Tony Richards.

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