How to Celebrate Achievements Gamefully

By approaching them mindfully, incrementally, and playfully

We humans have very ambitious minds. As soon as we achieve something, we forget about the significance of that wish — however great it might have been — and yearn for more. Often much more.

But celebrating achievements is vital. And it is not as complex as we might think it is.

Let’s consider the “Who,” “What,” “When,” “Where,” “Why,” and “How” of celebrating the achievements.

Why

Here is one of the most brilliant reasons why it makes sense to celebrate our achievements, however small:

“Taking time to recognize what you’ve accomplished has a domino effect. Knowing that you will celebrate a milestone can motivate you to keep going on the days when things feel impossible.”

— Eileen Cook and Crystal Hunt, Full Time Author: How to build, grow and maintain a successful writing career that you love (Creative Academy Guides for Writers Book 5)

Taking even a second to recognize your achievement — even the tiniest one and even only for yourself — will boost your motivation and drive.

What

Two questions arise here.

Here’s the first one:

What should we celebrate?

Anything and everything. Especially when we don’t feel like celebrating. Recall the “Why” above, and as soon as you don’t feel like celebrating, celebrate. But also celebrate when you feel like it.

Just like turning your life into games can’t be too much, there can’t be too much celebrating. But of course, you should combine it with the play, or work, or activity, that is making a step towards your dreams, which you subsequently celebrate. So there must be a gameplay loop:

1. Define your goal (the smaller, the better)
2. Take the smallest and most effortless steps toward it (by following or adding up the rules; the latter, the more fun, or even the sillier, the better)
3. Celebrate it with a reward (the smaller and the more fun, the better)

More on this later.

And now the second question:

What should you give yourself for achieving something?

The answer is in the third bullet (and especially its brackets) above and in the text below.

Your rewards are the best when they are non-material or “hardly” material (that is, they cost very little). Here’s what I mean. Perform a little dance, give yourself a point, draw a badge, for example, in the form of a donut or anything else but similar.

Here is how a one day’s to-do-list looks like for me at the end of the day:

The straight line crossing a task means done; a wavy one means rescheduled for another day. A donut for any of the project or activity areas — marked with numbers one to four and separated with straight lines — means done/closed for the day. I give myself a star if all tasks in the project area are crossed with a straight line. Sometimes, I add a big checkmark across the page as an additional “I did it!” sign. It’s optional for me.

One could argue that large rewards and big celebrations make more sense than those strange, crazy markings above. But here is a problem. If you plan a large reward, it might overwhelm you. Just like overly big tasks do.

Instead, make that big, overwhelming reward, like buying something for yourself, a game of its own. The goal would be to purchase something, rules to buy it only when a specific condition is satisfied (such as saving a particular amount of money), feedback system (e.g., a spreadsheet monitoring your savings and the price fluctuations of your target product you want to buy at various venues and retailers, as well as your rewards in this game; for the latter, see the following paragraph).

And for playing these purchasing games, however short or long they could take, you reward yourself with points, badges, colorful stickers, semi-precious stones you might have lying somewhere around but forgotten to look at for ages.

Who?

Oops, I already answered the “How” above. At least partially. More about it later.

But here are some words on “Who” should celebrate.

YOU!

You might expect others to come to you and say, “Great job!” “Well done!” without you raising the topic of your achievement yourself. But if you don’t appreciate what you do yourself, then even the biggest praise from others might go unnoticed by you. Or even sound mocking to you.

When the lockdown started in 2020, I realized that I had difficulty finding out what was worth doing and what not. What deserved celebration and what not? An achievement in my work or attending to my children’s needs during homeschooling? Managing to take a break or cleaning up quickly after lunch to make space for my son and his books?

There was no way I could compare and classify one as better or more worthy of a reward than the others. So I started taking small breaks and appreciating every single step I did. I recorded what I did — the smaller, the better — in the most beautiful notebook I had then, crossed the task to make visible that it was done and rewarded each five of them with a star.

Here are four pages out my Appreciation Gamebook from 2020:

At first, I thought it was remarkable to have managed more than one hundred little tasks in a day. But then, I realized that I managed something like that before. What was more fantastic is that I stopped and appreciated what I have done for a few seconds. The more often I stopped and had these tiny celebrations myself, the less I depended on the praise from others, and the more relaxed and well in myself was I.

I try to remind myself as often as possible when I am stuck to play this appreciation game again.

When

Oops, that was again a little bit on the “How.” Well, I often argue that the “How” embraces all the “W”-questions, including the “When.”

But let’s consider it for a second. When should you celebrate something? Oh, I just recalled that I answered that in the “What” above. Oops again (grinning while blushing).

Here’s what I said.

What should we celebrate? Anything and everything. Especially when we don’t feel like celebrating.

The latter is the clue. Whenever you don’t feel like it, you most need it. Because if you feel like it, you will most probably feel already in the flow and celebratory. We have this euphoric, concentrated, celebratory feeling in games, even if we might be frowning and looking seemingly sulky in the process. But if we enjoy the game, we are already celebrating. The gamers even celebrate by doing harder work than before. The higher, more difficult levels feel to them like celebrations.

Where?

Before I add any more information on “How,” let me answer the last “W” question starting with “Where.”

So where should you celebrate? Wherever you are! Any space is appropriate. And if you are present, mindful, and aware, you will find the appropriate method for your celebration. A mental “Yes, I did it!” with or without a smile is a celebration, too.

I often pull a scrap of paper and keep a tally for doing each smallest bit in a daunting project. As soon as the work is flowing, I consider myself a winner in the game I call the Project Booster and (sometimes even with a flourish and feeling utterly celebratory) throw away the tally.

How

Now, I can officially speak about “How” (grin).

But there’s not much else to talk about. Except for a few words.

Here’s how you find the best way to celebrate now in just five simple bullet points:

• Be aware
• Start simple
• Adjust gradually, one small step at a time
• Be gameful and playful
• Have fun

A few words in conclusion and a thank you!

I felt a little feisty, and even you could say ranty while writing this article. The reason: I was really down this morning and drowning in an “imposter syndrome” and “you are a failure self-talk” murky waters. But then I wrote this article to shake myself up a little and out of this apathetic stare and pull myself out of the swamp. It helped. This is the miracle of writing and also of turning life into fun games.

Thank you for reading this piece! Knowing that it might be read helps even more. I hope you enjoyed this article, and maybe it even helped you become a little more celebratory and optimistic. You deserve it!

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P.S.

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