I have a problem.
My name is Ursula and I have trouble celebrating great achievements.
Hi Ursula.
I have been encouraging my clients to celebrate their achievements. Every day.
Like every coach I’ve talked to, I don’t always follow my own advice.
Sure, I do daily celebrations. Most of the time.
But the great achievements? Oh, wow.
Celebrating my own achievements stirs up all kinds of feelings in me. To whom I lie? No one will want to celebrate this. You’re bragging, puffing yourself up too much. It is not a big thing.
Phew, an avalanche of objections. and resistance
That’s what occurred to me around the celebration of the 200th episode of my Work Alchemy podcast.
This is no small thing. This is a whole body of work, developed over almost 5 years, that I am very proud of.
200 interviews. All the internal effort that went into researching, preparing questions, interviewing with intense listening and interest in the person. Writing show notes. In addition to all the work that my team has done editing and publishing the interviews. Hour after hour of time, energy and money invested.
A lot of work. And most importantly, a lot of GOOD, even EXCELLENT, work. I am a very good interviewer. I recognize that. i own that
And my guests are truly remarkable people whose stories I want to share. They deserve to be heard.
I am grateful for the opportunity to share these stories. I love doing it.
And yet…
My own coach told me a story the other day of a woman who flew to another city to celebrate another woman’s achievement. When asked why she would go all the way, she said, “I will travel far to see another woman celebrate.”
Now THAT hits me.
I’m not celebrating just for myself, although I know that’s reason enough.
I am ALSO celebrating for every woman, every person who feels like me. That she is not enough, that this is not a big deal, that she is not worthy.
We don’t necessarily celebrate things that are important to us. It’s okay to celebrate weddings, graduations, birthdays. Those have the cultural rubber stamp of approval.
But achievements outside those limits? That can be more difficult.
We avoid celebrating for what other people may think and for what we ourselves think.
I’m changing all that, for me, with this celebration. I’m not shrinking from this. I’ve been celebrating the f*#@ of these 200 episodes.
By doing so, I am expanding MY impact.
The 200 will air on June 3, tomorrow if you’re reading this when this blog post goes live. I’m even hosting a virtual party to celebrate – you can win one of FIVE truly amazing prize packages, to support YOUR impact. It fills me with energy to share this celebration with you in this way, to support and inspire YOU in YOUR impact.
Even if you missed the contest, you can still celebrate with me: rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. That would really please me and help give the podcast and these amazing guests more visibility.
Either way, I invite you to celebrate with me, because when we celebrate each other, we celebrate ourselves.