Summary:
Discipline #5: Celebrate
* Each time you celebrate, even the smallest moment, you expand your vision.
* The work to do–for everything you’ve ever wanted–is believe. Belief comes in large part from celebrating the smallest moments.
“It’s important to celebrate your failures as much as your successes. If you celebrate your failures really well, and if you get to the motto and say, “Wow, I failed, I tried, I was wrong, I learned something,” then you realize you have no fear, and when your fear goes away, you can move the world.” – Sebastion Thrun, Stanford professor, artificial intelligence
The extraordinary life, the one lived to the fullest, is one filled with celebration. Whether it’s a fist pump or fist bump, a high five or a shout to the world, when we celebrate, we get in touch with all that’s good, all that’s successful, every blooming flower, every emerging butterfly.
Too often I’ve limited my celebrations to only those moments and measures that society has celebrated… times I’ve compared well or passed the grade. So limiting.
It’s time to let go of the scoreboard and celebrate life–the ups and downs, highs and lows–the living of life.
“Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel when it comes to us. Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy it will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity.” – Henri Nouwen, Harvard and Yale professor, theologian
Rather than judging each moment and circumstance, celebrate what’s still possible and the person you’re becoming with each learning moment.
If you stopped what you’re doing right now and were magically given unlimited vision so you could see every star, every cherry blossom, you would be in awe. You would celebrate.
If you could see what’s possible in your life, every possible experience, you would be filled with hope. The problem is we have these thunderstorms and they block our vision. But the truth is, the sun is always shining above the clouds. Beauty awaits each person who has eyes and heart open.
What in your life can you fist pump or fist bump for right now?
Love Jim