Are You Celebrating Enough?

It’s partly a birth order thing.

While all of our kids do well with friends, our youngest Benjamin (6) has social skills to die for.

Benjamin, the youngest of three, rubs shoulders with his older brother Ian (13) and his friends, unfazed by the seven-year age difference. Young or old, Benjamin pals around with ‘ya.

He’s currently in a yearlong love letter exchange with his veteran 1st grade teacher. With a vocab beyond his grade on each of his weekly readers he flirts, “I love you more than ice cream,” and she responds, “I love you more than chocolate cake.” He writes, “I love your more than butter,” and she responds, “I love you more than waffles!” He pens, “I love you more than the stars!” and she answers, “I love you more than the moon!” and on and on it goes!

Benjamin can bop with everyone: the athletes, the Boy Scouts, the girls, the shy ones, loud ones.

Benjamin likes himself and others too, and it shows. I know it is an advantage of having older siblings, but I think there is something more.

Benjamin knows two things:

• to go for what he wants and
• how to celebrate it.

Benjamin keeps things simple.

Every day on the drive to school after the Guardian Angel prayer, he shares that his Guardian Angel says for him to do well in school and not get a mark off.

With two months left in school he’s only gotten one. There was some controversy that it might actually belong to someone else.

Each of the kids has a magnetic dry erase board in our mud room to post art or papers. When I put Benjamin’s spelling test on his board, he made sure the one with the “A+” was the most visible by putting it on the top. He did the same with the swim team ribbons, making sure the “1st place” ribbon was what you saw.

Benjamin knows how to celebrate small achievements.

When Benjamin got his report card, it contained all “meets standards”, about the equivalent of a “B-“ and one “exceeds standards”. Benjamin enthusiastically pointed out his “ES” to dad as soon as he walked in the door.

Benjamin isn’t a braggart. He’s proud when he does well and doesn’t mind letting the world know.

Are you?

Celebrating your successes and highlighting your strengths aren’t extras. Habitual celebrations morph into what every entrepreneur needs: perseverance. They fuel you through the good and bad times in your business.

Here are some signs you might not be celebrating enough:

•  You easily get discouraged.
•  You stay there.
• You resist taking risks in your business.
• You have a more pessimistic outlook on life and your business.
• You feel fatigued.
• You feel bored.

Tune in to my next blog when we discuss HOW to celebrate and what it can do for you and your business.

The Catholic Mompreneur’s Biz and Life Tips: Rate your celebration style on a scale of 1 to 10. Ask yourself what you need to do to rank one level higher and go out and celebrate!