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Celebrate your past!!

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
--Helen Keller

I am about to turn 60. Many of my, used to be called, friends have told me that recently that I look much older! However, having some age on this birthday has given me some great time to think and ponder who I am and what I have accomplished. When I was much younger, which seems like a long time ago, all I could look forward to was the future. With some age, my kids would say a lot of age; I have realized that we do not look back enough to enjoy our successes. Sure entrepreneurs need to be concerned with the future, but you also need to celebrate your past successes.

I was meeting an entrepreneur in South Florida last week and her entire conversation was about all of her mistakes. She dwelled and punished herself for these mistakes. I spent some time talking with her talking about that mistakes or error of judgment are not travesties if you learn from them. I went on and showed her that for each of these so-called mistakes, she had actually learned something of incredible value. She finally understood this and then I moved onto her past triumphs and her face opened and she was able to relax, as she realized that she had done a lot. However, she could only see this by remembering how far she has come.

Most entrepreneurs have so much to celebrate and I encourage you to do this celebration. If you do not celebrate your successes, than you are going to be living in the constant frustration of day-to-day activity. Sure we do not want to dwell on the past, but we do not need to ignore it as well. I encourage you, and implore you, to have a staff meeting once every couple of months to celebrate individual past accomplishments and past business accomplishments. Can you tell that I really like to celebrate things!

Most businesses have so much to celebrate. Please remember that most businesses do not last two years. You have been in business for many years and overcome some very difficult obstacles. Some of the things you have to celebrate out: years of existence, longevity of your employees with your company, number of customers that you have, etc.

I am not saying, however, that you focus on the past, as this will get you into hot water in a hurry. Rather, occasionally, go back and enjoy the past with your associates of your accomplishments. Then, move on to the present and future.

I think you need to celebrate your past as that gives you a reference point of how far you have come. Without this reference point you are going be to constantly mired down in the minutia of day-to-day existence. Now start to plan how you are going to celebrate your past successes!