Following My Own Advice by Celebrating a Little Win

“I occasionally read your articles and they’re somewhat interesting.” — My son when I asked if he’s learned anything about financial management

Question: “So, how was your day today?”

Answer: Silence!

Question: “Did you have a good day at school?”

Answer: “Yeah”

Question: “Anything interesting happen today?”

Answer: “No”

Those of you who have teenage kids will probably recognize this type of conversation. My younger son is in the middle of his teenage years and this is about the depth of conversation we normally have with each other. Very frustrating! But, I also remember when I was that age and I had similar conversations with my parents. They were very patient with me and I try (I really do try) to be patient with him.

Given this backdrop of what’s a normal conversation between us, I had a memorable “success” with him this past week. I was talking with my wife about the articles I post on Medium and decided to ask my son, who was sitting nearby, if he reads any of them. He gave me the answer that’s quoted above: “I occasionally read your articles and they’re somewhat interesting.”

Now, normally, I would be devastated if someone told me that what I write is just somewhat interesting. However, coming from my son who’s at the age where giving positive feedback just isn’t done, I was happy. Here he was, telling me that he actually reads what I post. I also know that he’s a very bright kid. Despite his comment that the content was just marginally interesting, I know that he internalizes what he reads and learns something from each post. The fact that he occasionally reads my posts says that he sees enough value in them to read multiple posts and that he hasn’t written off reading future ones. All in all, an answer which I take as a win to be celebrated.

Now, for those of you who do follow my content, the timing of this conversation was perfect. Last week, I posted an article titled Celebrate Your Successes. In the article, I talk about all the benefits you gain by learning to appreciate yourself and your accomplishments.

I have definitely taken to heart the learnings from deeper research into the science of celebrations that I outlined in last week’s article. For those of you wonder whether writers such as myself follow our own advice, today’s post is an example that I do so. I historically wouldn’t have seen my son’s answer as something to appreciate and celebrate and, most certainly, wouldn’t have shared it with a wider audience like I’m doing with this post. I have to say that it feels good and motivates me to continue writing additional posts.

I normally end each of my posts by providing practical steps to start taking from what I had written. For today’s post, I hope you see that I also take my own advice and follow through on the steps recommended in each post — here are several of the steps I’d mentioned in last week’s article and how I’ve followed through on those:

• When you have a “win” in life, take the time to recognize it and give yourself some appreciation: Not only have I recognized that I had a win, I’ve actually written an article on it
• Build a catalog of your wins and use them to keep yourself motivated in tough times: This win is definitely going into my personal catalog of wins

Thank you again for joining me on my journey to build financial literacy for young adults and their families. Please share any comments or questions that you have in the comments section. If you are interested in reading more of my posts, please access my author page (https://vocal.media/authors/sudhir-sahay) where you can see all the posts I’ve published. Also, if there are any topics you’re interested in my broaching in future posts, please let me know. In addition to the comments section, I can be reached at [email protected].