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Seven months ago my unborn son was diagnosed with Down syndrome.  Three months later he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal kidney condition.  Today he’s a happy, healthy boy free from Down syndrome or kidney problems.  In between those times there was a lot of doubt, fear, and celebration.

“Wait, what?  Celebration?”

That’s how a lot of people respond when I share this story.  But the truth is, my wife and I (and our friends) made a conscious effort to celebrate.  Even when it was the darkest we knew we needed to celebrate.  You see, in life there’s always something over the horizon.  There’s always something that is going wrong.  The same is true of work.  It’s easy to look at the competition and think that what you’ve accomplished isn’t enough.  After all, no matter who you are or what you do, someone, somewhere is going to out-perform you.  No matter how great your presentation, someone will present it better.  No matter how genius your product, someone will come to market sooner/cheaper/smaller/faster.

This means you have two choices.  You can pout.  Or you can still celebrate.

Let’s be honest.  Life is filled with a lot of disappointment.  Nothing ever works out perfectly, and if we only celebrate when something is perfect, we’ll be waiting a long time.  That’s why celebration is the only reasonable choice.  Plus, when we celebrate we get two benefits:

1. It reminds us of our Achievements / Accomplishments / Luck / etc…  Virtually anyone reading this has a better life than just about anyone else in human history.  And while you might not be where you want, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate the success you’ve already had!  You’re a remarkable person, living in a remarkable time!  When we celebrate we get some much needed perspective.

2. It’s important to mark the moment.  If you boil life down to a single moment, then you’re either a success or failure.  You’re either a champion, or the loser who didn’t win the Super Bowl.  But life isn’t a moment.  It’s a series of moments, where we win some and lose others.  This is true for every single one of us.  The problem is we’re naturally biased to remember the bad moments.  And if we’re not careful, these can cloud our judgement.  That’s why marking the moment with celebration is so important.  It creates a mental anchor to our success, so that we can be reminded of our success in the midst of our failures.

Celebration is important in every area of our lives.  But especially in work, where we tend to skip celebrations because there’s always something next on our “To Do” list.  So celebrate if Ted in Marketing just landed the Smitherson Account.  But also celebrate when Jane manages to be at work every day for 3 years.  Or when you’ve written a really great report.  Or even if your team just managed to convince the boss to change her mind.

So how are you going to apply this to your work or to your employees?  What about to your blog subscribers?  Or Facebook fans?  How can you provide celebration for your organization and mark the moment for your followers?  Answer those questions and you’re on your way to not just celebrating, but towards succeeding.

Photo Credit: dcJohn