I guess I was born without the jump-up-and-down-and-toss-confetti gene. My birthday, New Year’s Eve, winning at Uno–I’ve never been much of a celebrator, I’m a Stoic. That’s changed. After reading the book Tiny Habits, by BJ Fogg, I’ve learned the importance of taking time to celebrate success.

As part of his recipe for building new habits, Fogg recommends celebrating while–or immediately after–performing the new habit. This celebration helps wire the new habit into your behavior. Fogg writes, “This good feeling wires the new habit into your brain. You’ll find that celebration is surprisingly effective, and it can be quick and easy, even fun (Fogg, PhD, BJ. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (p. 130). HMH Books. Kindle Edition).

So, I’ve started celebrating—a lot. Each time I do one of the habits I’m trying to build, I celebrate. Do my morning push-ups, and I celebrate. Pause to appreciate something good in my life, and I celebrate. Make it out of the grocery store without buying ice-cream, and I celebrate. Dance with Tasha, and I celebrate. Go for a walk or run, and I celebrate. Read for pleasure, not just work–celebrate. Take the stairs–celebrate. Empty my inbox–celebrate. I could go on. My days are now full of micro celebrations.

Why Celebrate Success?

Let’s examine why Fogg says we should celebrate success as we build new habits. He writes, “Feeling successful helps us wire in new habits and motivates us to do more….The ability to pat yourself on the back instead of beat yourself up grows solid, life-changing roots (Fogg, PhD, BJ. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (p. 10). HMH Books. Kindle Edition).

I’m finding this to be true. Not only am I benefiting from the new habits I’m building, but my life-long tendency to mentally beat myself up over every shortcoming, perceived failure, or setback is also subsiding. I’m learning to be gentler with myself–and that’s made me a little better at dealing with other people.

Fog explains, “Celebration is the best way to create a positive feeling that wires in your new habits. It’s free, fast, and available to people of every color, shape, size, income, and personality. In addition, celebration teaches us how to be nice to ourselves—a skill that pays out the biggest dividends of all.” (Fogg, PhD, BJ. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (p. 139)

Here’s a bit more from Fogg about what’s happening when you celebrate success:

When you celebrate effectively, you tap into the reward circuitry of your brain. By feeling good at the right moment, you cause your brain to recognize and encode the sequence of behaviors you just performed. In other words, you can hack your brain to create a habit by celebrating and self-reinforcing. In my research I found that this technique had never before been named, described, or studied. I realized that by studying and teaching celebration I was breaking new ground to help people change for the better. (Fogg, PhD, BJ. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (p. 134). HMH Books. Kindle Edition.)

When I first read the above quote in Tiny Habits, I scoffed to myself, “I’ve regularly failed at changing for the better in the past, I doubt this simple and silly-sounding technique will lead to success. And then I tried it. I was instantly amazed at how much incorporating a quick celebration into habits I was trying to build helped. My efforts seemed less like work and more like play. While exercising, eating healthy, and all the rest, I experienced less struggle and more joy.

How To Celebrate Success

Being a non-celebrator, the most challenging part for me was finding a method of celebration that fit my temperament. “The neurochemical reaction that you are trying to hack is not only time dependent, it’s also highly individualized. What causes one person to feel good may not work for everyone.”, Fogg explains. (Fogg, PhD, BJ. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (p. 140). HMH Books. Kindle Edition) I knew that outward exuberance wasn’t going to work for me. I’m envious of people who can express themselves like this…

…but it just doesn’t work for me. I tried it. It felt forced. Inauthentic. Luckily, Fogg had a solution. He advises, “Search for celebrations that feel authentic to you,” because, “If you feel awkward or phony when celebrating, your attempts will backfire. Your brain doesn’t want to feel awkward—it wants to feel good. Celebrations are personal. What makes me feel good (and not lame) is probably different than what makes you feel good (and not lame).” (Fogg, PhD, BJ. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (p. 142). HMH Books. Kindle Edition)

After trying a couple of low- key external celebrations (clapping hands, baring my teeth while raising the corners of the mouth, etc.) I opted to celebrate success internally. Outwardly, an observer would have no idea I’m celebrating. Internally, there’s not much going on either, I’m not tossing handfuls of imaginary confetti or popping open champagne.

My go-to method of celebration is what I’d describe as a mental high-five as I acknowledge my success. Walk past a cupcake, mental high-five. Finish the last bench press rep, mental high-five. Press Publish when this post is complete, mental high-five. Fogg says the important thing about how you celebrate success is that it feels real, that it’s authentically you, that it creates a positive feeling of success.

If you opt to celebrate success in your habit change efforts, you’ll need to spend some time tuning in to what kind of celebration works for you. Maybe you’ll choose a fist pump, maybe there will be a short dance routine, perhaps a huge Grin-Of-Success, or maybe, like me, you’ll prefer an internal celebration. Try on some celebrations and see what fits.

When To Celebrate Success

When you celebrate success is essential. You can’t do push-ups at 8:00 AM and celebrate a few hours, or even minutes, later. It has to be immediate. Fogg says, “When you find a celebration that works for you, and you do it immediately after a new behavior, your brain repatterns to make that behavior more automatic in the future.” (Fogg, PhD, BJ. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (p. 140). HMH Books. Kindle Edition.)

If you want to supercharge your habit building, Fogg shares that, “you can become a Habit Ninja faster and more reliably by celebrating at three different times: the moment you remember to do the habit, when you’re doing the habit, and immediately after completing the habit.” (Fogg, PhD, BJ. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (p. 151). HMH Books. Kindle Edition.)

That’s the approach I use. It works well and has generally changed my mindset and put me in a better mood since I’m always about to celebrate success, in the middle of celebrating success, or wrapping up a celebration of success. For example, here’s a look inside my head as I celebrate sticking to my Eat Less Junk Food habit on a trip to the grocery store:

• “I remember that I’m trying not to eat junk food. Good for me.” (mental high-five!)
• “It’s taking a lot of effort. There’s so much yummy junk in here.” (mental high-five!)
• “I avoided the snack aisle, but I have to walk through the bakery. Stay Strong.” (mental high-five!)
• “I’m walking past that delicious-looking display of chocolate chocolate-chip cupcakes.” (mental high-five!)
• “I avoided the donuts!” (mental high-five!)
• “Just a few more steps…I can do it…almost to the exit…victory is mine!” (mental high-five!)

Like I said, I’m jealous of external celebrities, but I am happy my celebrations are internal. Can you imagine how much confetti I’d go through during one trip to the store?

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