It wasn't much of a lunch; basic describes it fairly accurately. It was an important part of my day though, not so much for the lunch itself, but to mark the moment.
Today I secured a client I've been working on for a couple weeks. It's a lucrative deal and after a final two hour meeting I walked away happily having won the business. The revenue is the equivalent of my entire annual budget and considering I'm only six weeks into my reporting year you can probably understand why I'm celebrating. It's not my first deal for this new company; that happened in my first week just over a month ago and I've secured several others since but this deal is something special.
The company remunerate me by way of a healthy salary and commissions on total me-generated revenue and writing this business means I'll hit my annual budget easily. That means anything more I generate now, for close to the eleven months left of my reporting year will exceed it and my commission's rise exponentially. It's a good position to be in.
I never used to celebrate successes overly much; a win was a win and that was that; I'd regroup and deploy again in pursuit of the next. There was no chest beating or celebrations and I'd play down the accolades that came...I just got on with things.
But I came to the understanding that it was not a good way to be and that a small celebration, commensurate to the size of the achievement, was in fact very beneficial.
It's a pin in the map, a waypoint from which to begin the next leg of the journey. It's a psychological marker and I came to realise that marking the end of a journey prior to embarking on the next has emotional and motivational value, even just through acknowledging the hard work and effort to get there. In the years since discovering that, I've marked my success on each occasion but commensurate to the scale of achievement. This means I didn't go out and buy a new Aston Martin every time I won a new account; not even every second time.
Today's celebratory activities
Today, my celebration involved a café and sandwich made up of tuna, tomato, red onion and mayonnaise plus a cup of coffee. I know, it doesn't seem that special considering the scale of the success I had today, but it's enough.
It was a simple moment of reflection and thought, an acknowledgement of my efforts, persistence and consistency, and as I sat there chomping on my sandwich I thought about the journey I'd taken to gain that achievement taking the time to feel good about it. I sipped my coffee, ordered another, and said to myself, you did a fucken good job G-dog. An hour later I drew a line beneath it and moved on.
I'm working on two more deals like this currently, each as lucrative as the one secured today, and it's difficult not to be somewhat excited.
The thing is, that excitement doesn't win deals in my industry; it takes hard fucken work, flexibility, knowledge, influencing skills, adaptability, persistence, personality, ability to deal with rejection, strategy, consistency, good timing, prioritization, resilience and a bazillion other things. Those things come to a person over time and fortunately I've had jobs which have delivered many lessons over many years, some learned the hard way, but all valuable. So I'll do those things with these other deals, and the many more I'll need to put together to retain my job and job satisfaction, and celebrate the wins in between.
Yesterday the General Manager flew in to my State, a surprise visit, and he said a few things that felt good to hear; he seems to like what I'm doing. But in truth that doesn't really matter as it's myself I need to impress as no one will ever drive me harder than I do myself. It was nice to hear him speak well of me though, and I think he'll be pleased to see today's deal go through.
Do you celebrate the successes you have as they occur and if so how do you do so? Is it a night out, (one of my favourite things to do to celebrate), a purchase of something you've set as your success-reward or other such celebratory thing to mark your success. Feel free to tell me about it in the comments below.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
Any images in this post are my own
Lol, it's about bloody time you started celebrating your achievements. The small accounts and medium accounts are just as important as the big accounts and every little bit helps.
Hope you have a great weekend coming up.
Cheers
Well, no angels started singing an neither did champagne fall from the sky...there's wasn't even any fucken helium balloons so...I had to deploy operation celebrate by myself and I'll be honest with you, a good time was had by all.
There's not much on the agenda this weekend: Shooting Saturday morning, lunch then work at home, a hive post on knives and then the couch at night. F1 from Austria this weekend. Sunday, not sure yet, but snacks and the F1 race in the night. 🙂
Well at least you made a good time and had a good time, that's what counts. I hate helium balloons so can go witout lol.
Enjoy the shooting and the racing. I'll look out for your knives post, I know it'll be a good one.
Hmm, my post could very well be total shite. Time will tell. 😊
Oh please, I don't think you could write a shite post even if you tried 🤣
That sounds like a challenge.
Lol I didn't mean it as one.
Congratulations Galen! You are an "yster"! (Literally it means you are steel, but it means you are strong or solid and well deserving.)
Ag, you know what I would be doing to celebrate your success - we have a braai!
Get some chops and wors and make some salads, bring your dop and relax the evening at the fire with your friends and a good meal!
Cheers! 🍻🥩🍴
I'm yster? That sounds bloody awesome. I used to have abs of steel but not so much anymore...however now you've basically called me steel I'm going to own it. Lol.
Anytime is braai time mate, you know I'm down.
Good times right here mate, good times.
I had an amazing job when I started my own life and about five years in, due to a medical issue, which wasn't that big a deal, except it was - I had to resign. It was devastating to me, but, I took my time, retrained in another field, and carried on to do well.
I rewarded myself, with a glass of champagne, for forging ahead and making it work.
I like hearing stories about the reinvention of oneself as it shows ownership, discipline, responsibility and awesomeness. I also know it's not the easiest thing to do as I've done it myself a few times. So, it seems you, the original and best Swigly one, is just plain awesome. Well done. This is in respect of the started my own life comment which I've filled in some blanks on...it's made your pivot that much more difficult and awesome.
A glass of champagne is a decent reward.
And by the way, Congratulations to you. What you accomplished is nothing to sneeze about. You sealed your year up in a months time.
Brava.
😊
Warden Buffet is maybe the most genius mind in the economy world. He keeps his mind and strategies simple yet working like nothing else.
Congratulations on your accomplishment! General knowledge is crucial in every sphere that you work in and you have to possess much more skills that will grant you success. Keep on improving, man! It’s great when you see and start picking the fruits of your efforts.
Gaining results through effort and hard work is something that makes me very happy and leaves me feeling fulfilled. I think the same could be said for most people. How about you? How have you driven towards your goals?
I’m trying now to balance my energy between my family with the two little kiddows (age 1 and 3) and widening my skills at my job. I’m into a construction firm and currently I’m dealing with a lot of designing/constructing at fields that I wasn’t that familiar with. I think broadening my field of knowledge will give me further push forwards. I’m pleased that I’m already seeng the fruits of my efforts from an empty field with some apple trees to a very modern home. And behind this there were a lot of hard work and learning in fields that weren’t my exact degree of education.
The small results we get need to be recognised, in a manner befitting the achievement. That was we start to connect the dots, plot the journey, and the act of doing so motivates us to keep going, keep a good attitude and to drive towards future results.
Life is about balance and rarely is it totally even between all our commitments. We have to do the best we can though, as that means we'll not look back with regret later. It seems you're on a good journey.
Just like we define happiness, success, and many other things differently, celebration has a different meaning to everyone.
Celebration for me is usually simple, it is usually as quiet as possible but my family is not always left out because they inspire me a lot and one way or the other contribute to every achievement.
It use to be an indoor thing even though I choose to eat from my favorite vendor, I just pack up and go home after buying.
Congratulations on securing the deal, this is a good way to start the second half of the year. More wins to you sir, 🍷🍷cheers.
What things do you celebrate? I mean, not birthdays and weddings and anniversaries...I mean business or personal achievements. What things?
Yeah, it is business. I run a small fish farm that is yet to serve its real purpose and for every growth such as expansion, huge sales, and others I celebrate regardless of how small it is.
All the best with your fish farm endeavours; with some excellent strategies, goal setting and hard work success has a better chance to raise it's head.
Are you kidding me? I say it's the best and most special, yet still a simple way to celebrate, nothing too flashy.
A big ole congratulations to you btw. 🥃
There's nothing better than a good sandwich and coffee celebration, maybe even add in a slice of cheesecake, perfection. Even when it's not about celebrations, if I'm just feeling down, then I just go to one of these nearby cafes and order away haha.
Thanks mate, I’ve put a lot of work into that deal and am pleased it’ll return a healthy revenue and pushes me to budget level. Now everything else is cream on top. I’ll be honest and say I’m super-pumped. I thought about adding a cake, and cheesecake would have been the go-to but I gave to be a little careful being diabetic and all. A decent cheesecake can cure many ailments and makes for a great celebratory treat!
A solid deal can get a person pumped up for months, I sure do know how it feels. These moments and accomplishments are the best motivators, I'd say.
I wish you nothing but the best for your future deals as well. Cheers brother 🥃
You're right, it's like clearing away the fog and seeing clearly into the future and what's possible. It's the desl I really wanted to happen as it outs other things into perspective.
Exactly, spot on.
After holidays and overtime pay. I got my self a vintage ulysse nardin watch i'd been wanting. Definitely satisfied.
Timepieces are my best personal reward
There's nothing quite a timepiece to reward one's effort and achievements. Well done.
First thing first, I would say, congratulations sir. They got themselves a gem by employing you and you are a natural winner and this is just another milestone in the bag.
I am big on celebrating even little wins and it shows with my expression even if I don't go all out to celebrate it. I love how you redefined it...indeed we need to celebrate our wins and then allow it to motivate us to do more. You celebrated in a modest way possible while allowing your thought process to still be active. I love that.
I am sure the next two deals would be secured soon and I wish you more success to come because you are going to blaze this trail and set the bar so high. They don't know who they have employed yet hahahaha. Keep being the pace setter and congratulations once again sir.
I better not set the bar too high or I'll not reach it in my next reporting year! 😂
Seriously though, that deal has me set up really well for a great reporting year and the benefit from having the pressure off (a little) will help make me more effective from here on.
I think they respect what I'm doing and a few good results here and there will build on that.
Absolutely, they have to respect what you are doing sir. You've done remarkable well sir. It takes the pressure off, no doubt as you can focus more on other things. Yes, you have set the bar high and you will keep squashing it 😍😍😍.
We gotta celebrate this still...again hahaha... Okay... After the other two deals, we must.
Hi @galenkp many congratulations, sometimes we give little recognition to our triumphs and so we see it as something normal, and to start it seems good to me the coffee, little by little you make a habit until wue celebrate even the smallest thing, which is a way to be grateful from my point of view 😉.
Hola @galenkp muchas felicidades, a veces le damos poco reconocimiento a nuestros triunfos y por eso lo vemos como algo normal, y para comenzar me parece bien lo del café, poco a poco vas haciendo un hábito hasta wue celebres hasta lo mas mínimo, lo cual es una forma de estar agradecido desde mi punto de vista 😉
The acknowledgement of a job well done, the effort expended to achieve the results, can be a motivational launchpad into the next and for me it's an important factor. It sort of outs a full stop after the achievement so I can then begin anew.
😊😉👏
Way to go ! Sounds like you are off to a fantastic start.
I have sometimes rewarded myself when I was successful at something. After I started working with the company I am working for now (almost 25 years ago) after my first promotion about a year and a half in, I walked down to the jewelry store on my lunch break and bought myself a ring ! Although I love fun jewelry, it is something that I have never spent that much on, because it was never a priority, but I thought it was worth remembering, so I did it. It didn't become a habit though. 😄
Thanks Jace, yeah it's been good really, and I've a few more in the pipeline. So, could be a healthy year for me I guess.
I like the small reward thing, clearly. As long as it's for the right reasons and the reward matches the achievement. I do it with some many things: A cup of coffee and a cookie as reward for hitting my calls for the morning, or a baguette and a coffee at the beach on a Friday afternoon for hitting my weekly targets. You know, small things just to make the moment. Like you and that ring.
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Cheers 🥂 man
Indeed.
Congrats!
For me, it depends. I won't really go all out to plan a celebration, but let's say if I happen to walk past a nice restaurant, I might just pop in to reward myself. Otherwise, it's life as usual. Hehe!
Yep, seems like what I did and usually do, as per the post. I sat at a cafe/bakery and had an $11 lunch, not bad celebration for a million dollar contract huh? 😁
Hehe I think your achievements are on a different level (at least in quantum) compared to mine!
It would be better if I got the million but it goes against my annual budget so that's enough. I'll content myself with the commissions. 🙂
😄
Strange and yet another parallel.
As I celebrated on my way home while stopping and sinking all my profits into the fuel tank. What did I celebrate.??
Fridays I celebrate survival of another week. This celebration was with a Subway Foot Long Tuna on wheat. Extra cheese. Not toasted.
No coffee. A Root beer soda. LoL
Are we in the Twilight Zone?