By Deborah Goldstein, Driven Professionals

Do you celebrate your successes? I’m not talking about the giant milestones, but rather the everyday tasks that may be mundane, but are still important. When you finish a personal or workplace project, do you take a moment to pause and give yourself an “at-a-girl”? If you do, it appears that you’re a rarity. For instance, I was shocked and saddened last week when only ONE participant of DRIVEN’s Procrastination Buster webinar raised her virtual hand when I asked that question, as opposed to all of the hands shooting up when asked about rearranging their to-do lists to make themselves seem more productive.

That said, the idea of congratulating oneself even seemed foreign to me until a year ago when Sylvie Gadant, partner at Citrin Cooperman, rocked my world in this department during DRIVEN’s Advancement Strategy Symposium (We were still WAC at the time). Sylvie was sharing her wisdom about authentic business development when she declared that she always makes it a point to celebrate her successes. “Hmmm”, I thought. “I don’t do that.” Typically, I finish an assignment and then rush on to the next project. My only acknowledgement of “a job well done” is in the ritual of crossing it off my to-do list. All this time, I had been fooling myself by considering this a sincere salute. You too? The fact is, many of us manipulate situations in order to remain in a state of avoidance, which leads to such ridiculous self-trickery as giving Mom a call in order to cross “Mom” off the list….a humorous scenario that was brought to light during the procrastination workshop.

Such spontaneous moments during that webinar have been reverberating in my head all week. Since DRIVEN is dedicated to promoting Personal Energy Management during the first half of 2016, I find myself habitually tying everything back to energy. Here’s how it works this time: If we make tiny changes in our lives and begin to acknowledge them as “baby steps to success”, it’s only natural that we will change our energy in the process. So, my new challenge to you is to take pause after you finish one of your prioritized tasks, and give yourself a “way to go”, acknowledging that you’ve accomplished something meaningful. First imagine how that would feel, and then find out for yourself by doing it. As you continue this habit, I promise that you will notice the shift….not only in energy, but in confidence.

Doesn’t today seem like the perfect day to discover your own inner cheerleader? The moment is yours to seize! Make the move, and join me for the Personal Energy Workshop Series by signing up HERE.

Deborah Goldstein is the founder of the Driven Professionals, a community driven to support the health, well-being & success potential of NYC professionals. Deborah is also the founder of Goldie’s Table Matters, providing education and entertainment to both corporate and private clients nationwide.