Two thoughts came to my mind when I read this quote. The first thought was, “Why on earth do we not do this more often?” Sure, when someone comes to you with some bit of good news, we do say “Hey, that’s great. Congratulations.” How often do we really go all out and celebrate? We do not have to wait for the big events either. How fun would it be to have a great time and maybe lunch to celebrate your friend getting a new set of tires on their car? How about offering to take your spouse out for dinner after making it through a tough day at work? I am sure they would love that.
The second thought that came to my mind shortly after the first was “If we did this enough, we would be living in a state of celebration!” No matter who we are, we have enough friends and enough reasons to be celebrating every single day! Your friend just completed their first marathon? Doesn’t matter if you can’t even run to the bathroom, go ahead and celebrate with them. There is also an endless stream of ways to celebrate. You can take them out for lunch or dinner as we already discussed. You can also send a card. Send a fun email. Post something lavish on their social media. Pick up a small token of celebration or even offer to do a small service. I am sure you can think of more and I would love to hear about them!
Today, begin to think about and look for people and things you can celebrate. Not only will you feel good and have fun, but by showing how important others accomplishments are, you will strengthen your relationships. Your friends, coworkers and spouses will feel more important than they have in a while and you will feel good because your actions have made them happy. Everyone wins! Who can you celebrate today?
Today is my birthday! This is not a post about celebrating that, however. It IS a post about celebrating. Once, listening to a talk by Michael Beckwith, I heard him suggest asking yourself 3 questions a day. I dive deeper into this in my second book, Living the Dream, but one of those questions is “What can I celebrate?”
Today, for my birthday, that’s what I’m asking all of you to do. Today, ask yourself what you can celebrate. There is always something. Do you have people in your life you love? People you can learn from? Do you have a way to make a living? Do you have something that can motivate and inspire you?
I certainly wouldn’t mind you celebrating the birth of a charming author and blog writer. Better still, I would like you to find and celebrate something in your own life. Don’t just acknowledge it, celebrate it! Please share what you are celebrating and how you are doing it! Add to my reasons for celebrating today.
Here is a great question to ask yourself daily – what can I celebrate? Living life in a constant state of celebration can certainly make it amazing. Truth is, there is always something to celebrate!
You can celebrate the birth of your favorite author (mine is next Friday) you can celebrate one of the odd holidays that they come up with. Just Google “what holiday is today” it will be national chilli dog day or some other celebration you can join.
These are all great ideas. (I especially enjoy the author birthday one) In my humble opinion, the best way to find something to celebrate is to ask the question, “what am I grateful for today?” Whatever answer you come up with, celebrate that. One thing you are grateful for a day and just find ways to celebrate. I would LOVE to hear what you are going to celebrate today!
We touched on this last week, but we are going to double down today. My third book is currently in the works. I swear as an author you are either just starting a book, in the middle of a book or just finishing a book. Actually, it is usually a combination of all three. Back to our thought for today’s post. My third book will be titled “Life is a Party, put your name on the guest list”. The idea is how to live life in such a way that it generally feels like one continuous party. This is actually easier than you think it may be. As with my first two books, inside this upcoming book will be tools that will help you turn your life into one amazing celebration.
I am going to share one of the ideas that will be in my book with you here today. You must take time to celebrate. I don’t mean a slight pause on birthdays and holidays. What we are talking about today is scheduling celebration days. I suggest a minimum of once a week. We will get into what to celebrate in a second, but first let us look at why we should do this. Planning something to celebrate gives your brain and you as a whole, something to look forward to. If all you have is a yearly vacation that can make the other 11 months + a little hard to cope with. If you look forward to the weekend, but it is filled with accomplishing the chores you had no time to get to during the week, that is not much to go on either. What we need is a little inspirational fuel to power us through the tough days. If you celebrate every Friday, that means you will have something to look forward to every 7 days. If you do it twice a week, every 3 days or so you will have a celebration to look forward to. If we are honest with ourselves, isn’t easier to push through when we have something to look forward to celebrating? Providing emotional and inspirational motivation is one reason to schedule celebration days.
The next reason is the actual day itself. How do you feel when you are celebrating? Excited? Happy? Perhaps even a little grateful? Who wouldn’t want to feel this way more often? The second ‘why’ of living life in celebration is the feeling of elation that comes with it. Keeping in a positive emotional state can do so many wonders for us. Increasing our life expectancy. Strengthening our immune system so we stay healthy. Science has even shown it can help speed healing and recovery from illness. Being in a positive emotional state can also help us get along better with others. We become more compassionate and understanding. We are just more fun to be around as well. It is also good if you are looking to attract the partner of your dreams. There is no better accessory one can put on than a smile. Happier people are just more attractive. When we are celebrating something we are in a healthier, more positive emotional state.
Can you imagine life as a state of celebration? How can we do this and what on earth can we be celebrating so often? Glad you asked! The list of things to celebrate is endless. Even if you find yourself living a life that is far from your ideal, you can still find things to celebrate. Our friend for self-improvement, Google, can help us. Look up “holidays for _____” and just put in tomorrow’s date. There will be a list of holidays that you never knew existed. For example, tomorrow will be July 6th. Holidays on this day include International Kissing Day. Think of the fun ways you can celebrate this day! Come home and instead of complaining about the work day, plant a passionate kiss on the lips of your spouse! Maybe even follow that with a card that says how much you love their kisses. Don’t have a special someone in your life or wish to use your mouth in a different way? It is also Fried Chicken Day. Treat yourself to your favorite chicken spot. Maybe try recreating grandma’s fried chicken recipe.
What if none of these holidays work for you? Perhaps you are single and your ex was a butcher so you have decided to become a vegetarian? No fear! There is so much around us to celebrate it is almost criminal that we are not always in a state of celebration. The origin of the word ‘celebrate’ comes from Latin and means frequented or honored. How many people in your life can you honor? Think of how you would feel if one of your friends informed you they have decided today they are going to celebrate you, especially if it is not your birthday? How would you celebrate a friend? Take them out for coffee or dinner? Do a post of appreciation on social media? Send them a card? Maybe a small token of appreciation? The possibilities are plenty! We can even celebrate our favorite celebrities! Pick a favorite actor and set aside an evening and a bowl of popcorn and have night watching a few of their films. This can be done with singers or even authors and blog writers!
Having someone or something to celebrate not only gives us something to look forward to, but allows us to exercise our creative muscles in deciding how to celebrate. We can celebrate our favorite animal. We celebrate our favorite kinds of food. I am looking outside the window right now appreciating how lovely the trees look. Could somebody really have a day celebrating trees? Why not! Can you imagine living in a place with no trees? Not so pleasant. How would you celebrate trees? I am really not sure, but it could be fun to come up with an idea. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on what you can celebrate and how. Please feel free to share them in the comments below!
Today is the first of July. This also happens to be the month in which I was born. One of the things I have learned from the love of my life is that it is ok to celebrate this occasion all month long. As she informs me, “It is not your birthday it is your birth month” I am not sure how she came up with this and I do confess to have found it rather silly to begin with. Like many things she has brought into my life, upon further inspection I have come to see the great gift in this. We spend 11 months of the year sacrificing our health, our time and our well-being for others, for our work, for our world in general. We should, at the very least, take one month of the year to celebrate and focus on ourselves. It is a great recharge and recalibration of life. Discovering and being reminded of the gifts we bring to the world is not only important for the way we live our lives, but would certainly take more than a day. So I say, celebrate your birth month!
Michael Beckwith, one of my favorite mentors, encourages us to ask ourselves what we can celebrate everyday. Can you imagine if everyday of your life was a celebration? It really can, and should be! There is so much in our lives that we can be grateful for we really have a reason to celebrate everyday. Even if you are short of reasons to celebrate, just look up holiday on ____ and put today’s date in the blank. There are holidays everyday of the year. July 1st, for example, is National Postal worker day. That is a double for me. It is my birth month and I am a postal worker! It is also National gingersnap day, National creative ice cream flavor day, and for my friends north of the border, today is also Canada day. What fun ways could you celebrate all of those? Imagine doing this daily? Life would be one continuous celebration!
Back to the birth month idea. Imagine if you could come up with 30, or in the case of my birth month 31, ways in which to celebrate yourself? How good would you feel about yourself at the end of the month? How might that good feeling impact the way you interact with the world? I can assure you that a confident and happy Neil interacts with the world a lot better than a self-conscious and doubtful Neil. For my friends that are a bit too humble to dive into this right away, their are still ways to celebrate. Celebrate all of the ways you make others happy. Celebrate the ways in which you make a good spouse. Celebrate ways in which you can bring your gifts to benefit the world. Celebrating yourself does not have to be an exercise in ego, but taking a break from focusing on your faults and starting to focus on your finer attributes. You may discover this feels so good that you decide to do it more often.
It is true there can be a great deal of growth and self-improvement by studying our faults. There is, however, a totally different kind of growth that can be had by focusing on our gifts and talents. Developing them can leave us not only feeling happier and more fulfilled, but increase the way in which we can contribute to the world. Another great thing to keep in mind for our more humble-minded friends. This month of self-celebration can result in us being able to better share our gifts with the world or at the very least show up as a happier, more self-confident version of ourselves. Can you think of 30 or 31 ways in which to celebrate the awesome person you are? I believe you can and you should!
Let us all decide to use our birth month to our advantage. What if July is not the month you were born in? It’s ok, I give you permission to borrow mine. Plus, let’s face it, you haven’t celebrated a birth month up to this point, you deserve a bonus one this year. Starting today, think of one way a day to celebrate how you are awesome. It may seem like a challenge at first, but it can be fun as you get used to it. If you want to be really brave, share this experiment with others. Get you spouse or your coworkers involved. Encourage them to celebrate themselves everyday for a month. Offer ways in which you think they are amazing and ask them the same about you. Share your celebration with those you care about. Celebrate them as they celebrate you. It will end up with both of you feeling better about each other and yourselves. I encourage you to do this with everyone in your life. Can you imagine how good your friend will feel if everyday in their birth month you text them something you admire about them? Imagine the great work this could do in your intimate relationship? Celebrate my friends. Please leave both the ways you are celebrating yourself and what you are celebrating in the comments below.
Yes this is me. Why do I look so happy? I’m celebrating. Why am I celebrating you might ask. Well, today is my birthday. I have made it through another year of trails and challenges. I am reasonably healthy and have some great people in my life. Still that is nit the reason I am celebrating in this photo. As you may have guessed I am celebrating my cup of coffee I am holding. I had been craving that very coffee for a while and finally stopped on my home from work. That also happens to be my ‘on the way home from work’ face. It also happened to be a sunny day out as you can see in the picture. I am a big fan of the sun.
What does all of this have to do with living an amazing life? Here is something that I learned that I want to pass along to you today. It is something that has added a lot more joy to my life and only takes a little bit of effort. The best thing about the effort it takes is that can also be fun. Here is what I learned in the last year or so. If, for example, I had been craving that coffee a year ago I would have purchased one and said “Great! Now let’s enjoy it”. I would have drank it and moved on. After all it is just a cup of coffee I wanted. Same with the weather that day. I may not have even noticed it. A lot of us only notice things like our health when they are bad. I may have only given a passing notice to the weather or none at all and just went home. Here is what I learned. If you take time to savor and celebrate daily things take on a whole new meaning.
So how can we celebrate things in our life more? In the above example when I got the coffee I took time and sipped it noticing every little detail. I tasted it and thought about the experience of buying it. I enjoyed the aroma and the feel. As for the weather? I took time to feel the warmth on my skin and thought of days gone past in the sun. I noticed how beautiful everything looked lit by the sun. If this all sounds a little over the top to you, ask yourself why. We should take the time to enjoy all of the good things in our life. Savor every drop of joy out of life you can. How many times to we replay hurtful or sad events in our heads? It is time to take back our joy! As a birthday gift to me, please start focusing on all you have to celebrate in life and share your ideas in the comments below. Feel free to share this post with your friends and help them celebrate life as well.
SECRET 2 AN AMAZING LIFE 