The Importance of Celebrating Wins

When watching professional sports, there are a number of exciting elements that make us enjoy watching.  There is love of the sport itself, the beauty of seeing professionals perform at such a high level, the camaraderie of bonding with others over an event or a team and the thrill of your team winning.

One of the elements that often goes un-noticed is the importance of the celebrations of the athletes.  When our team scores a point, has a good play or wins the game, we celebrate.  However, it feels good partly because we are celebrating with the athletes themselves, even if we are not at the game and are watching it on television.  There is an energy that is created by celebrating and we feel like we are a part of it.

We notice the celebrations, of course, but we often don’t realize just how important they are to the athlete’s success.  Celebration is just as important as all of the preparation and rituals that are performed before, during and after the game.  Celebrating locks in the good feeling of success and achievement both mentally and physically.  When we celebrate, our brains release hormones that make us feel good and if we physically celebrate, with hugs, high fives and fist pumping, the physical act itself connects those feel-good hormones with success and we feel even better.

We can use celebrating as a success tool to physically lock in the good feelings of achievement.  When we accomplish, we should celebrate it like athletes do with physical movements like a fist pump, “high-fiving” someone or yelling out a positive “yes!”  These may seem overdone and theatrical, but the positive feelings you will receive will give you physical as well as psychological feelings of achievement and push you to greater success.

And why shouldn’t you celebrate your successes? You earned them!