The other day I sent out an invitation for the annual summer birthday party of my company, Blue Penguin (8 years).
I invite everyone who subscribes to my twice-monthly newsletter, with a simple offer: Come to a local (fantastic) outdoor ice cream place, chat with other folks for a couple of hours, eat great ice cream. All my treat. Pretty good deal all around.
The first one I did was in 2005, at my five year anniversary. My coach had harassed me (as she always does) with the question: “How are you going to celebrate this achievement?” And so the ice cream party was born.
I’ve come to learn that celebration — particularly when you work alone — is an important part of running a business. It’s easy to just move from one project to the next, or to think to yourself that you’re “not quite there yet.”
Thanks to my coach’s relentless prodding, I’ve come to find that there are always things worth celebrating. So, how about you? How are you going to celebrate…..?
I have to admit to seeing every day as a celebration. Specifically, the ability to surf the soccer pages without anyone looking over my shoulder (apart from my wife).
Stopping work because I feel like stopping and not because the clock says it’s time to stop.
Not stopping work because I choose to do work that I love and why stop when you’re having fun?
And taking off for half a day with the family just because I can.
The biggest challenges are then finding balance and managing the freedom. If there are no fences, you can end up walking aimlessly for miles. So you have to build your own. (If that makes sense.)
I agree Mark. In some ways the freedom itself can be the biggest shock. I clearly remember sitting in my car after leaving the last job I had, realizing that for the first time in my entire life, nobody was expecting me to show up somewhere the following day. Not a bad arrangement!
As a coach, its really good to see someone not a coach giving good ole celebration a nice shot in the arm!