Monday Morning
Motivation 9/27/2010
THE POSITIVE PLACE. SALES MOTIVATION AND PERSONAL GROWTH
Celebrating the peaks
I was in church the other day, and eavesdropped as a man was discussing his son with another man.
"He's always excited," the man said. "He celebrates every little peak."
I don't know if the father meant it as a criticism, or something good -- just then, a neighbor talked to me, and I was drawn away from my eavesdropping -- but as I thought about it a bit, I decided that it'd be a good thing for all of us. We should celebrate the peaks in our lives -- our accomplishments, goals we've achieved, lessons we've learned, trials we've endured -- a lot more than we do.
Most of us celebrate the big things -- the weddings, the retirements, the births, the promotions -- but generally speaking, those are few and far between. Oh sure, there are some people who get married as often as some of us change our shirts, but for the majority of us, these "large life events" are infrequent. Taken over a lifetime, these individual events of celebration are big things, and they should be; but they occupy only a small amount of the time we have allotted for our lives.
But the "little" accomplishments, the everyday "wins" that permeate our lives, are more frequent. As a result, they're usually ignored, but shouldn't be. We should get in the habit of celebrating those "peaks." Oh, to be sure, we don't want to blow them out of proportion -- I mean, nobody wants to have a party just because you won $3 playing the lottery -- but we need to see these peaks for what they are, a way point on the path to higher challenges. These little peaks, smaller though they may be, should still be occasions where we pat ourselves on the back a little, at the very least.
I don't know if you've ever looked at a topographic map, but it seems when you're in mountainous country, every little peak has its own name. They may not be as well-known as the larger mountains, but someone named them -- they are a point of prominence to someone. (In fact, in part of the country that I frequent, there are a number of peaks named "Mollie's Nipple." I have no idea who Mollie was, but she must have been quite the woman.)
I don't drink, but for years, I've noticed a feature in the Wall Street Journal called "Open That Bottle Night." OTBN is a time where people get together with their friends and family, and they open a special bottle of wine. It came about because many people would put aside a special bottle for a special occasion, and they would never get to open it, often dying before they found an occasion that was special enough. Some times, the heirs would open the bottle in their memory, sometimes finding that it had turned to vinegar.
In the same vein, there's a story going around about a woman who saved the good china for a special occasion. She dusted it, took care of it, and showed it off, but never used it. I believe they used it after her funeral.
As we conquer the peaks in our life, we should celebrate them, even when they're more of a hill than a mountain.
In doing so, we can make our entire life a life of celebration.
Copyright, 2010, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.