Why You Need to Celebrate Accomplishing Your Goals

What will you do when you accomplish one of your goals for the year? ¹ Should you cross it off your list and move straight to the next thing?

That might be tempting, especially when you multiple other things vying for your attention. But before you move on, you need to pause to celebrate.

What Celebration Means

Celebration doesn’t need to be complicated. It doesn’t need to involve a party. It doesn’t even need to involve spending money or “rewarding” yourself for all your hard work.²

The difference between “rewards” and “celebrations” may be largely semantic.³ But to me, a focus on “celebration” has two key upsides.

Rewards Are about Entitlement

Thinking in terms of “reward” partly implies a level of entitlement. You achieved x. Because of that, you’ve earned y.

Entitlement Itself Isn’t the Problem

Not all entitlements are bad. The Bill of Rights, for instance, outlines basic entitlements for individuals physically present within the United States.⁴

Self-entitlement Is

Where the problem arises is when an entitlement rests on your own perception of your unique virtue in whatever you achieve. There, entitlement is no longer a simple fact. When bound up into your personal identity, entitlement calcifies into pride.

As C. S. Lewis reflects,

Pleasure in being praised [or, say, enjoyment of an entitlement] is not Pride. The child who is patted on the back for doing a lesson well, the woman whose beauty is praised by her lover, the saved soul to whom Christ says ‘Well done,’ are pleased and ought to be. For here the pleasure lies not in what you are but in the fact that you have pleased someone you wanted (and rightly wanted) to please. The trouble begins when you pass from thinking, ‘I have pleased him; all is well,’ to thinking, ‘What a fine person I must be to have done it.’ The more you delight in yourself and the less you delight in the praise, the worse you are becoming. When you delight wholly in yourself and do not care about the praise at all, you have reached the bottom.⁵

So, rewards for achievement can be good things (e.g., a day’s wage for a day’s work). But focusing on rewards as such can perhaps all-too-readily encourage you to think how wonderful you are to have earned them.

And on top of that, if a planned reward doesn’t pan out, you might find yourself deflated rather than motivated. After all, you were “entitled” to the reward you earned for finishing your goal.

Celebrations Are about Thankfulness

If you think in terms of “celebration,” however, these downsides might become less accessible.⁶

And what counts as a “celebration” can be entirely modest. It might mean

• telling someone close to you that you finished an article and submitted it to a journal,
• having a special dinner with your spouse,
• taking an extra few hours away from your academic work to spend with your kids, or
• doing any number of other things that might, yes, even include having a party.

The point is that celebration is about thankfulness. Celebration is about gratitude. Celebration is about intentionally noticing that where you are now isn’t where you were.

You can press straight ahead from accomplishing one goal into working toward the next. But you haven’t gotten from where you were to where you are on your own. And pressing ahead without stopping ignores this dimension.

So, it’s good for both you and those around you if you intentionally find ways to celebrate progress that reflect gratitude. That’s especially true over the long haul from one year into another, into another, into another.

Conclusion

If you already have plans for how you’ll celebrate when you accomplish the various goals you have for this year, that’s great. If not, take some time to think about it.

Make some general notes on possible celebrations along with your written goals. That way, you’ll have some helpful reminders through the year. Those notes can prompt you to pause to celebrate and give thanks as you work toward what you want to achieve in this year.

As you do, remember that the point isn’t to do something fancy. It’s simply to be intentional about how you mark, celebrate, and express gratitude for the progress you’re making. And through that gratitude, you and those around you will renew your stamina for moving forward into, yes, whatever’s next that lies ahead.

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