Celebrating Nalina's Birthday

In AprilI we all celebrated my youngest daughter, Nalina, turning two.

Nalina’s middle name Ray, befits her as she is a happy, boisterous, thoughtful
and entirely too cute for her own good.

I spent 4-5 whole hours cutting up coloured card and gluing letters onto it
to make birthday bunting the next day.

When I put up that bunting I honestly had a wave of pride go over me

(Yes, over bunting!)

it made me think of how good it felt to celebrate something so small
yet meaningful.

Imagine the good we would do for our business if we treated it more like our
young children?

Aren’t young businesses (5 years old and younger) just like small children?

My wife and I are insanely doting parents so we go out of our way
to celebrate Nalina’s small wins.

As a family we all do.

We cheer her on as she clumsily uses a plastic fork and picks up spaghetti with it
and eats it. Everyone claps and Nalina claps with us.

Does it matter that 90% of the spaghetti strands are on her lap or her bib?

No we celebrate the 10% that made it.

When Nalina says a new word, sings a new tune or dances a new step

we are there to celebrate.

To encourage.

To motivate.

And what does she do? She grows, get’s confident and tries new stuff.

I really wanted to speak to you individually because I had this realization
that our businesses don’t have to be different –

(minus my slow motion eating faces and terrible attempts at choo-choo food trains…)

Most people reading this blog have the incredible gift of being
entrepreneurial, ambitious, go-getter personalities.

Obviously, you rock.

As amazing as this gift is, it’s also a “curse” because we tend to funnel all our mental capacity on growth and forward thinking.

And this focus on growth and moving as far and quickly forward on the
progress spectrum as possible often leads to ignoring how far we’ve come
and what we’ve achieved.

It blinds us of true awareness.

And that’s why so many incredibly successful entrepreneurs and highly
successful people are unhappy and unfulfilled.

It’s hard to have awareness and perspective when you don’t
recognize anything beyond growth and forward progress.

We stop celebrating our small wins.

So I urge you to take some time now and whenever you are feeling a bit
down, unmotivated, or lacking in energy…and truly think about what
you have and how far you’ve come on the progress spectrum.

Who have you got in your life now that is a direct result of action you took
in your business?

Whether you have 1000 subscribers or just 10 (and you are one of them) celebrate
that ten people are still listening to you.

Created a web page, squeeze page, ebook recently?

Celebrate it!

And this is applicable to all elements of your business and personal life.

Don’t let the fact that you aren’t making money on your blog get you
down; instead, take a moment to appreciate that you have your own
domain and your own blog.

You have your own little piece of Internet real estate…

that’s pretty damn impressive if you ask most
people on this planet.

Don’t let the fact your last campaign only brought in 200 leads get you
down…

be eternally thankful that you were able to capture the
attention of 200 people…again,

that’s pretty damn cool.

Or put more symbolically…

When you get to step 2 out of 21, celebrate that you completed 2
steps…that’s pretty awesome. Don’t freak out that you have 19 to
go.

This program celebrates those steps with you

And when you get to step 3, celebrate again…one more step
down, put on your own Julia Roberts sized grin.

So…

Be ambitious,
think big,
dream big,
and push forward…

that’s what’s going to take you far.

But push forward with an awareness of where
you are, how far you’ve come, and what you have.

That will not only make you a wildly successful entrepreneur,

but also a wildly happy one.

And isn’t that the ultimate goal?

Cheers

 

 

Screen Shot 2014-05-29 at 11.19.28 PMSamith

P.S Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of me and my family clapping and cheering you on. (Even though you have most of the spaghetti on your chin…)
P.P.S I’m working on celebrating more as well. What have you celebrated recently?