Monumental Moments in Business and Life

Blue. Orange. Tall. Short. Tassels. Gowns. Diplomas. Smiles. Cheers. Hope.

These are some of the sights and sounds of the Syracuse University 2017 Graduation ceremonies I witnessed over the weekend to celebrate my youngest son’s launch out of collegiate life into a brave new world of career and independent living. It took four long dedicated years filled with doubt, success, steps forward, steps backward, frivolity, seriousness, friends, books and mentors. If you think about it, as entrepreneurs we could paint ourselves into that same story.

Monumental milestones occur a few times in our lifetime including being born, graduating from high school, making it onto a sporting team, being chosen for honor society, choosing our career path(s), getting married, having children, and even starting a business (or two). Perhaps our life has 50 significant celebratory moments out of tens of thousands of minutes in our lifetime, so making the most of them is essential to our spiritual and mental health.

As many of the women in our organization embark on their own milestones of age, years in business, revenue plateaus, new business store locations, innovative product lines, and award recognition, stop like I did and illuminate your mind with the images of that success milestone. Recently my Boston Marathon moment included these images – women. hugs. friendship. miles. cheering. pain. elation. support. success. finish line.

If you had to write down ten words to describe your last significant moment of achievement what would they be? Are they related to your business success or personal success? Did you do it alone or with support? Who was with you in the accomplishment? What emotions did you experience? What happened that you did not expect? Write down the ten images that come to your mind followed by a period until you have ten in a row and then “study them.”

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you that every day might not be a milestone day but if it is we must acknowledge it and recognize the achievement. We move too fast through 24 hours, 7 days a week without stopping to notice the moments that can fill us up with pride, hope and accomplishment. Whether big or small goals, reaching them is meant for applause if even from ourselves for the hard work done and goal accomplished.