Have you ever noticed that when professional athletes make a point or a goal that they celebrate that goal in the moment? Whether it is the dance in the end zone of a football game, or a fist pump or “come on” in a tennis match, athletes know how important it is to keep up their energy by focusing on their success. People who play games for a living know how to celebrate.

If you are like a lot of people, you don’t often spend much time recognizing yourself for your successes. You probably recognize that you have accomplished your goal, to some degree. Perhaps you also do some of these things:
* Criticize yourself for taking too long
* Tell yourself you didn’t do it well enough
* Immediately start working on your next goal

This is a problem because the feeling of success is so important for creating happiness. When you take the time to pat yourself on the back, you build up your own self-esteem and your sense of self-worth. You also spend time basking in the feeling of joy that comes from the success. You may have been taught that it is wrong to “blow your own horn” and have mistakenly believed that to mean that you shouldn’t talk about your accomplishments. Maybe you worry that others will think you are boastful.

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