July 4th is an important day when Americans celebrate their independence, however there are at least 17 other rather unusual days to celebrate in July.
Some lesser known July celebrations include:
July 1st – National Creative Ice Cream Day
July 2nd – World UFO Day
July 6th – International Kissing Day
July 10th – Teddy Bear Picnic Day
July 13th – National French Fry Day
July 17th – Yellow Pig Day
July 26th – National Talk in an Elevator Day
July 27th – Bagpipe Appreciation Day and
July 29th – National Lasagna Day
And we here at the IACTCenter and Coaching for ADHD want to add ‘Celebrating ADHD Awareness and the Succeed with ADHD Telesummit’ to the list of July Celebrations.
If you haven’t ever joined us, each year for one week we host the Succeed with ADHD Telesummit where we invite 20 of the world’s best ADHD experts to share with us some of their favorite strategies for succeeding with ADHD. My team and I work incredibly long hours starting in early March right through the week of the telesummit in July. It’s a marathon week, leaving us completely exhausted, but by Monday of the next week, I am raring to go onto the next project.
Check. Done. Goal achieved. What’s next…right?
Wrong!
If yellow pigs get a day to celebrate than I want to declare July 31st International Succeed with ADHD Day! A day to celebrate our achievement with the telesummit…have fun, enjoy and even make merry!
I’ll admit that even after working so hard to reach our goals, I am one of the worst at taking time to celebrate. Until, I realized that celebrating is so much more than patting ourselves on the back, setting off fireworks or clinking glasses.
Celebrating is an essential part of our lives and I wanted to share the reasons why with you. Celebrating lets us:
Capture the learning. When we take stock of what we’ve learned along the way to our goals, we can consciously incorporate those lessons in the future.
For us here at Coaching for ADHD and the IACTCenter, we have a team debrief where we go over what went right and what we can improve upon in the future. We read the feedback from listeners and see how we can make positive changes for next year.
Acknowledge our personal resources. In reaching our outcome, we are tapping into various personal resources and strengths, such as courage, resilience, creativity and persistence. To be acknowledged—and to give ourselves credit, as well—is deeply satisfying and necessary. Recognizing, or having someone else acknowledge our strengths and talents calls us forth to use them even more.
During the team debrief after the telesummit, I make sure my team knows their value. How they contributed individually and together to the success of the project. I know I could never do the telesummit without them! In addition, I share feedback with our speakers and sponsors, thanking them and letting them know how their efforts contributed to the success!
Build a sense of unity or community. Nothing can bond people more than striving toward a common goal and then sharing in the joy of the achievement. Let’s face it…it’s no fun to party alone.
The Succeed with ADHD Telesummit team goes way beyond my assistants, Meg and Shaun, and myself. It also includes the speakers and sponsors who participated and helped promote the telesummit. My goal is their goal – when they succeed I succeed and together we get to spread ADHD awareness around the globe.
And lest you forget…YOU are perhaps the biggest parts of making the telesummit happen year after year. Yay YOU!! Each time you join us for the calls, listen to the recordings, pay it forward by sharing the telesummit with someone else, send in emails about the positive benefits you are experiencing during the telesummit and support us by purchasing the recordings, you let us know we are all in this together.
Send a “Thank you, can I have some more” message to the Universe. Pausing to savor and celebrate successes large and small sends the message out into the Universe that you know how to appreciate this accomplishment in your life and you are ready for more! If you want to be offered the chance again, the easiest way to get it is to celebrate…and then watch the opportunities rain down.
Have fun! Knowing you get to celebrate in a fun and meaningful way after your goal is achieved is a great motivator. Who wouldn’t be more willing to go through that challenge again if you know you get to make merry and enjoy yourself afterwards? For some this might include relaxing and pampering yourself (one of my personal favorite ways to celebrate). Celebrating doesn’t have to be expensive or extravagant (unless or course you want it to be). Whatever brings you a sense of joyous completion is the ticket. You deserve it!
So grab a book, go on a picnic, gorge yourself on ice cream and lasagna while you listen to the recordings from this year’s Succeed with ADHD Telesummit…the only wrong way to celebrate is not to celebrate at all.
How do you celebrate?
Let me know about your favorite ways to reward yourself for a job well done by sharing your thoughts in the comments area.
I usually celebrate by going out to dinner-no cooking by me- with my family and friends.
But this year I am going to celebrate my graduation from IACT Center as a ADHD Life Coach by attending the ADHD convention in Atlanta,GA. I am looking forward to learning new skills and making new friends.