I had to lose 38 pounds to reach my goal weight.
The process started in March when I chose my ideal weight and began tracking calories consumed and calories burned.
Last weekend, I finally hit my target.
There are two responses I could have had that wouldn’t have been helpful:
❌ I could celebrate the achievement, call it a success, and stop thinking about my health. But that’s what I did four years ago. Then I spent the next three years gaining all of the weight back again.
❌ I could ignore the achievement and immediately set my next health goal. But ignoring achievements tends to make future goals less motivating.
Whether you’re working on your own personal goals or you’re leading a team, it’s important to celebrate when you reach a goal. It’s also important to have a new vision for future achievement.
✅ In your celebration, take time to appreciate the effort and commitment that led to success. Remind yourself or your team that you are the kind of people who make a commitment and then meet it.
✅ Reward yourself or your team with something they find enjoyable. Experience a direct benefit that reflects the intensity of the commitment and creates a positive association with achievement.
✅ Take a moment to rest and recover strength and energy before demanding another intense commitment. Let the depth and duration of the rest reflect the amount of effort the goal required.
✅ Give a sense of closure to the project that brought success.
✅ When the time is right, set a new goal that will help maintain your recent gains and give you new inspiration to pursue another goal with another celebration.
Take advantage of the motivating power of the human brain. Reward the accomplishment with a celebration. Then create anticipation for a future reward by setting a new goal.
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