As a health and wellness professional, passionate about your work, you likely find yourself very future-focused. Do you constantly strive to be the best version of ‘you’ and have big goals and expectations of yourself? When milestones come up or goals are met, you may find yourself immediately transitioning onto the next thing without acknowledging that you’ve hit your goal at all, as you are already two steps ahead!
Although this high-achieving nature is what allows you to create amazing results in your life and for your clients, there is something to be said for taking a moment to pause and recognize what you’ve achieved. While celebrating wins is often overlooked, it can not only make a positive impact on your overall well-being but also impact the health and growth of your business!
At first, it may feel uncomfortable or even scary to give yourself permission to pause and celebrate what you’ve achieved because you may worry that it will thwart your motivation. Why look back you might think? You just want to keep going, right? But it’s actually the opposite! Taking the time to recognize your wins will re-fuel you with the energy and motivation you need to move forward in your business. If you constantly push forward onto the next greater and bigger thing, without re-fueling yourself with recognition and celebration, eventually you will run out of gas.
The practice of celebrating wins can be taken full circle with your clients. As a health and wellness professional, it likely goes without saying that reminding your clients to celebrate their own wins is important. The journey that your clients are on with you is one full of progress - however, creating meaningful change in someone’s health takes time. They may not always feel like they are making progress and it’s your role to help them see their wins, and how far they’ve come.
The act of acknowledging met milestones, wins, and goals, no matter how small, is an important and valuable practice.
Here are 3 strategies you can use to start celebrating your own wins, and how you can apply that to your clients as well:
When you think of wins in your business, you likely think of the bigger things - perhaps hitting your monthly revenue goal, or launching your new group program - but what about those smaller, more day-to-day moments of progress? It’s important to place value on your small wins too because they all add up! Your small wins build and build, and eventually become your larger milestones. Even though something like conducting a discovery call with a potential client, or coming up with an idea for your next group program may seem insignificant, they are worth celebrating because they are the building blocks of your business. Without these action steps, your business won’t grow, so it’s important to pause and acknowledge them so you can give yourself an energy and morale boost to keep going.
Put it into action: To make sure you don’t overlook the small stuff, create a daily practice of recognizing your mini wins. At the end of each day, jot down one thing you are proud of, made progress on, or did that was outside of your comfort zone. You can even set mini-goals for yourself ahead of time that are easy to achieve and are sure to give you a quick win. Remember, think of this on a micro-level. Nothing is insignificant!
Apply it to your clients: The health journey is similar to the business journey in that celebrating small wins and recognizing progress has a hugely positive impact. As we’ve discussed, it helps to not only boost morale but instills the energy and motivation needed or your client to keep going. Consider smaller metrics you can track that will be quick and fun wins for your client, such as the number of new foods, recipes, or exercises tried. Take the opportunity to regularly review these mini wins with your client to highlight their progress, and celebrate together!
When you take the time to acknowledge and celebrate your big wins, it gives you an opportunity to evaluate what has gone right in your business. What were the wins in your business and why? How did you achieve them? How can you do more of it? Maybe you spoke at a noteworthy event, landed your dream collaboration, or exceeded your program launch goal. Once you’ve recognized the win, you can start to evaluate why it worked and how you can replicate or exceed the outcome the next time. This is so important to help grow your business and plan for future success because, without reflection, you are moving forward blindly.
Put it into action: In order to make sure you’re taking regular stock of your big wins and achievements, book time in your calendar every month, quarter, and year to do so. Often we get so wrapped up in the next thing, we forget to take these moments to pause and reflect, even if you have the best of intentions to do so. Block time in your schedule months in advance, and even put a reminder on your phone.
Apply it to your clients: In order to highlight your clients' larger wins, consider how you are measuring and evaluating their health journey. Which key metrics are markers of success, and how are you going to track those? Perhaps you are using a pre-appointment check-in form, or daily food & mood journal entries. Use this information to inform how you move forward with your client toward even greater success with their health journey. As well, make sure you review this with your client! Add a reminder to check-in on what milestones they have reached. This can be monthly or even quarterly. The acknowledgment of the hard work they’ve put in and the positive results can really help give them the momentum they need to tackle their next big goal.
You might find that you are too close to your business that you can’t see your progress or how far you’ve come. It’s natural to have these blind spots, but it’s up to you to enlist some help! If you feel stumped on identifying your wins, consider getting another person’s perspective. Ask someone close to you who has witnessed the growth of your business, and can reflect that back to you. It can also be beneficial to check in with someone who actually contributed to your wins and achievements, and made them possible! Celebrating together will not only give you the full mood and motivation boosting benefit but will give you a new perspective. Getting this type of feedback from an outside source is so powerful because they will likely be able to share different wins than you came up with, and will also be able to recognize your smaller wins with more clarity.
Put it into action: First, decide who you want to ask for feedback from. It’s important to only ask people who you trust, and who have enough insight on your work and the trajectory of your business. Ask them questions such as:
Apply it to your clients: Just as you’ll enlist someone else to help you see your own progress, it’s your role to help your clients see theirs. As an external perspective who has direct insight into your client's journey, there is huge value in you sharing their wins and progress. Consider keeping track of the wins that your clients may not think to acknowledge, or may not be able to perceive well themselves, such as how far they’ve come. Reflecting back to your client where they started and where they are now is powerful because they can get so caught up in what they still want to improve on that they are often blind to the progress they’ve already made.
The practice of acknowledging your wins and allowing yourself the opportunity to celebrate them is beneficial for both you and your business. When you perceive that you’ve made progress, even in a small way, your mood and motivation are boosted. This not only feels good and contributes to a greater sense of well-being, but allows you to continue moving forward toward your next goals, ultimately contributing to the overall success of your business. The same can be applied to your work with clients. The more you acknowledge and celebrate their wins, no matter how small, the greater their motivation will be to keep going, allowing for amazing and transformational results.
Watch our Facebook Live Replay on Celebrating Wins to Help Grow Your Business!
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