Celebrate…

The last few weeks have been pretty heavy.  I have written about a lot of pushing through adversity, finding community, basically a lot of work and tasks to complete.  This week I am changing gears.

We need to take the time to celebrate our victories.  Take a victory lap.  Bask in the glory of our accomplishments.  A lot of times we just keep pushing right through and never take that time to realize where we have gotten ourselves to.  We tend to want to continue pushing for greater.  While that is a great trait, sometimes taking a breather and living in the moment will refresh us from the grind that is constant self-improvement.

When you get into the frame of mind of steady improvement, it is hard to ever be happy with where you are.  You are always looking forward to the next big thing.  The problem is we rarely look back to see how far we have come.  When we take the time to do that, we can see the fruits of our hard work, our passion, and our drive.  We see why we pushed so hard and why we continue to consistently improve our lives.

I have been pushing hard for the last few months.  Between trying out new business ideas, pushing harder in my walk with God, and even work has given me some curveballs that I was unsure of how I would handle them.  It has been harder than normal for me to stay in the mindset of growth, and to be honest, I was getting frustrated because things weren’t happening quickly enough for me.

I have had to take a break from even thinking of the challenges I am still facing for the last few days.  I have had to live in the moment, something I haven’t done in a long time.  I have simply focused on rest and allowing my mind to calm down.  By doing that, I have had even more new ideas, but more importantly, it gave me time to look back on how far I have come in the last two years. 

Two years ago, I had the best and worst week of my life.  The first part, I was on fire for God, and had the drive to conquer the world, the last part was losing my oldest son.  Since that time, I have made a lot of changes to my life.  Changes to myself more than anything.  I have gone from a church attender to being a true follower of God, I have gone from having a view of being stuck at my job, to someone who is launching his own company with hopes to one day be able to work it full time.  I have been able to help others see their own potential.  I have learned a lot about the capabilities I have to share my story and help others through my writing, speaking, and leading others.

I am far from perfect.  I fall short, I fail at things, and I drop the ball sometimes, but instead of letting those things limit me, I lean into them and fix them and come out ahead most of the time these days.  I have taken the past few days, and I will probably take the next little bit to look back and see other ways I have improved myself and my family in the last couple of years.

I encourage you to do the same, take a break from the grind of the constant pursuit of success and look at how much progress you have made so far.  You will be shocked when you take the time to sit back and reflect on it.    

Galatians 6:4 (NLT)

Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.