Melissa Reddick

How do you celebrate your wins?

I know the last couple of days have kind of been depressing. “What fears are holding you back?” “What are your basic necessities?”

Today, I want you to focus on what will you do when your life purpose has been achieved? Even if you don’t know what it is yet!

When your life purpose is done, how will you celebrate? Surely this will be a great victory.

Your Life Purpose is something that your entire being is oriented towards achieving. Especially when you are young, before the world starts demanding that you conform to this system or that one. As you get older, growing up in a world where people have to work harder and harder to make you forget that you have a larger purpose, especially when they don’t have the tools or the steps to help you achieve it. It doesn’t fit into their visions for success, and so they “encourage” you to disregard it.

It is possible to achieve your Life’s Mission! That is what I want you to wrap your head around today. It is possible! It is not only possible, it is NECESSARY in order for you AND the world to function at our best.

THAT IS SOMETHING WORTH CELEBRATING! Who you are MATTERS to the world at large.

Once you’ve done what you came here to do, will you let yourself relax? Will you throw a big party and invite everyone who believed in you AND all the people who said it couldn’t be done?

Would you send “Thank you” cards to all your haters for the fuel they contributed by giving you someone to prove wrong? Will you order the most expensive chocolates and roses to be sent en-masse to everyone who ever fired you, rejected you, or made you look stupid in some way because they provided the obstacles that you overcame which allowed you to unveil the strength within? The strength that was necessary to achieve your mission in life?

If you are going to taunt your haters with gifts of kindness, make sure you reward your supporters 10x better than that. They deserve everything you can share with them and more.

Personally, I would reconsider that approach. I think a nicely worded letter would be enough to say “thank you” to the people who didn’t believe in me. I would save my money and reinvest it in the next phase.

It’s silly to think your life’s purpose can ever be DONE DONE. That’s crazy work, as the kids would call it (I think. I don’t know for sure). What I do know is that if you’re a person who pursues a life purpose, you won’t be satisfied when it’s done. You’ll immediately be asking yourself “what’s next???”

That’s what I’ve done.

But in the meantime, before you just gloss over this huge achievement, you should have a plan in place.

Does your plan for celebrating the fact that “YOUR ONE TRUE PURPOSE AND MISSION IN LIFE HAS BEEN FULFILLED AND NOW THE WORLD IS A MUCH BETTER PLACE FOR YOU AND EVERYONE WHO RESIDES WITHIN IT” include more work? Does it consist of glossing over it? Shrugging your shoulders and going “eh, that was no big deal. But this Next Thing I’m working on, when IT’s done, then I can really celebrate. I can go all out for the next one.”?

That’s a sad plan. I don’t like that. So today, we are going to enjoy an “Acting As If” exercise.

Be careful with acting “as if” in real life. If you do that, you’re essentially operating outside the bounds of reality. That is not typically a healthy place to be. Sometimes it can be necessary, but you have to really be grounded for it to work and not come of crazy. Actually crazy. Like…insane. 🦇💩

For the purpose of this journaling prompt, you don’t have to go out into the middle of the street and throw yourself a parade in real life. You don’t have to walk through your town banging pots and pans together screaming “I did it! I saved the world!”

You haven’t done that yet. If you WANT that to be a part of your celebration plan, it can be. If you really want people to celebrate you organically, then your mission in life will likely contain elements of recognition so people can see what you’re actually doing to help them.

Good luck with that. Also, be careful, because you don’t want to set yourself up to be deterred for the many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many years before that where people are saying “no, don’t do that.” “hey, get a job.” “we hate this.” “stop it” “weirdo” “freak” “there’s something wrong with you.” “stop!”

So maybe your plan for celebrating your successes only includes YOU for this one. Trust me on this. You have no idea if the people you call friends, family, loved ones, significant others are going to be there to celebrate with you or not. Trust me. You don’t know if they will choose that. And if you’re here, it is time to learn that people always have the choice. It is better to give them the option. That is the only way you’ll know if they really want to be there or not.

So for this exercise, let’s call this Celebration Phase 1. Let’s say you just got a call and the BIG Thing you were aiming to do for years (maybe even decades, but it feels like millenia) has been ACHIEVED! Your cure for cancer ACTUALLY WORKS! Your self-igniting, self-extinguishing fire pits have been tested thoroughly enough to prove they actually PREVENT their own accidents regardless of how humans interfere with your design.

And you’re alone when you get the call.

No one else is around. The person sending you the message doesn’t care to celebrate. They’re exhausted from calling other people with good news but receiving none of their own.

And you aren’t ready to tell anyone yet. Maybe that part is hard for you to imagine. But then again, you’re a writer, so maybe not.

You don’t want to spoil the surprise. You’re not ready to jinx it yet. But you want to give yourself a pat on the back. A “hey, good job! you earned it!”type of thing.

What are you doing?

Taking yourself out for dinner to celebrate? Somewhere fancy? Somewhere nice, that serves the meal you’ve always dreamed of having on an occasion like this one?

I know a lot of people today would go right to “a good bar with fine wine or high end whiskey” or “smoke a cigar” (talking to the men here). Let’s…skip the vices for now. You’re celebrating a huge accomplishment. We can untangle that from self-harm activities for one second.

Do you take yourself to a movie? Go on a shopping spree, upgrade your wardrobe? What can you do to anchor in the energy of “I won. Finally! I won!” before jumping back into the fray with your “What’s next?” attitude that only Winners possess?

Think of something fun. Exciting. That makes you feel Joyful. Free.

And then…your homework after you’ve journaled is to actually just go and do the thing. Today. Or this weekend. Make time. Put money aside and go do it.

If you can’t do it today, what can you do that coincides with it? Maybe you can’t go on a 3 day trip to SoJo spa. Maybe that is not a special form of celebration because it’s actually meant to be a more regular aspect of self-care.

But you can take yourself out for dinner. Go to your favorite spot. Buy yourself some makeup or skincare product you’ve had your eye on for a while. Buy a new dress, enjoy a feast, do something that imparts that sense of “congratulations! Celebrate!” Not “I earned this”, not something you can look at as a reward or hang it up and have to explain to everyone what it symbolizes. This isn’t that.

It’s hard to explain “Celebration!” energy because not many of us really grasp what a gift it is to celebrate anything, especially purpose being fulfilled.

Celebrations today are mostly a burden, just like everything else. Or they’re a luxury, one that most people would be quick to beat out of you if they could make it make sense for them to do so. Don’t let them.

Make this quiet, simple but meaningful celebration mean something to you.

Love you!