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Redefine Success Pt. 3 - Celebrate Your Progress · The Daily Writer

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Smart Business Writing Podcast, the show that helps you share your message, increase your impact, and grow your business through the power of writing.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is the third part of a four-part mini-series on redefining your success.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't had a chance to go back and listen to parts one and two, I really encourage you to check those out.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: But just as a quick refresher, the main idea here is that it's important to define success so that you can set yourself up for a win every single week.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about practices and habits that are within your control and that can set you up for those wins that are so critical.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: What I want to talk about today just for a few moments is the importance of celebrating your progress.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really important way that we can redefine our success so that we can have a win on our own terms.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to celebrate our progress.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a question.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Have you grown in the last month?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have you grown in the last quarter, in the last year, or the last three years?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: If so, congrats.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It means you're winning.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: It means you're growing, you're expanding, and you're learning and you're making progress.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I have a client who has reinvented part of her business in the last year.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: She has a traditional brick and mortar business and has been really successful with that.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: But she wanted to take what she had learned in that business and take it online and help other people in her same industry.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, she has set up a website.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: She's now using Convert Kit for email marketing and sending out awesome emails to her email list.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: She's doing online courses, in-person workshops, and some other really, really cool things.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's been challenging and it's been hard for her, but she's learned a ton in the last year.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And having worked with a lot of different people the last few years and just having spent a lot of time around online entrepreneur types of people and authors and so forth, I can definitely say she has accomplished more in the last year than most people accomplish in five years in this space.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been so inspiring and has really made me up my own game, to be honest with you.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's just been really, really a cool thing.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what I know, though, about growth and progress is that when you're in the midst of all that process, it's frustrating.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: When you're being stretched, it's not comfortable.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not fun.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we all tend to resist growth because it is painful in the moment.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's frustrating and we have to go through a process of learning things where we feel like beginners all over again.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not really fun.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But it is part of the learning and the growing process.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I know also.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: We underestimate our own accomplishments and we overestimate everyone else's.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again because I think this is really true.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important to remember as we're thinking about celebrating the progress that we've made, we underestimate our own accomplishments and we overestimate everyone else's.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: For example, you're scrolling through Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn and you see everybody's book launches, you see their cool trips, their speaking engagements, their conferences, their vacations, their perfect lives.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Then you think about your own life and you only can think about all the mistakes, the failures, the half-finished projects, and everything that's not ideal about your own life.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the problem is that those things are a totally false measurement.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that whenever you're looking on social media, you're only seeing highlight reels of other people's lives.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to your own life, you know all the nooks and crannies of your own life.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: You see all your mistakes, many of which are forefront in your mind, and we all tend to downplay our success and we tend to overestimate everybody else's success.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because all that we see from other people are their successes.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: We don't see the problems, typically.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: We don't see the frustrations and the struggles, and you know, it's kind of that old joke of where, you know, a family's going to church and they're all fighting in the car and they're arguing and they're all unhappy.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then as soon as they walk into the church on Sunday morning, they're all happy and smiling and holding hands and everything.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, social media is kind of that way.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're only seeing one very small slice of people's lives.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because remember that social media is curated.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is a it's a place where everybody puts their best face forward, which is totally okay, but we've got to remember that whenever we're tempted to compare our own lives to other people's lives.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, the only race you're running is against yourself.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're not running a race against somebody else.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Your race is different than their race.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Their race is different than your race.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to celebrate the good things you have accomplished because those are mile markers on your journey of success.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I think it's really important to keep a journal, by the way.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about journaling a few episodes back, so go back and listen to that episode because journaling is a, for me, a critical keystone habit that helps a lot of other areas in my life.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you keep a journal, you can track the things that have happened in your life.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can track your successes and your wins and your progress, as well as your points of learning.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can look back and see how far you have come over the last six months, a year, five years, or ten years, or even longer.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't think that you've come very far in life or in your business, I would really challenge you on that.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, let me ask you some questions to help you to consider the fact that you have come a long way.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: You have accomplished some cool things, and you have done a lot of things worth celebrating.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here's some questions.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Have you made any money from your writing or your business in the last year?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: If so, that is progress.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Have you done any work on an article or a book?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: If so, that's progress.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Have you done any paid work for at least one client?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: If so, that's progress.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have you met some new people or built some new relationships lately?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: If so, that's progress.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Have you tried something new lately, no matter what it is?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: If so, that's progress.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Have you created anything in the last year?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: A book, a website, a podcast, a conference, an article, a piece of art, or anything else?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: If so, that is progress.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to look back carefully at your life over the last year, and I'm pretty sure that you'll see that you've made some progress.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not as much as you would have liked.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly haven't made as much progress as I would have liked, but I have made a lot of progress.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the only question that remains is, what are you going to do to celebrate that progress?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because trust me, my friend, you are worth celebrating.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're an amazing person who has so much to offer the world.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So please, for your sake and for all of our sake, don't downplay your accomplishments.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure to celebrate your progress.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and even more, I'd love to hear the things that you are celebrating.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: What have you done in the last quarter or six months or a year or a few years that is worth celebrating?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter what it is, I'd love to hear about it genuinely.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can shoot me a message on Twitter at Kent Sanders, or you can also send me an email at Kent at KentSanders.net.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want to hear about your success, not just for your sake, but for my sake as well, because your success helps to inspire my success as well.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for listening.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you, and I'm so glad to be able to spend this time with you on this episode.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.