The Power of the Fist Pump!

I wanted to write a blog on how important it is to celebrate your wins and in particular the power of celebration when it comes to locking in good habits and behaviours.

I found myself googling images of fist pumps to capture this sentiment and it turns out that Tiger Woods is the ‘master’ mind the pun of fist pumps. There are pages and pages of him fist-pumping and even montages of his very best. It turns out that Tiger was onto something. I’ll explain shortly.

Golfers get it

Being a golfer myself I know the glorious feeling of sinking an important putt or watching a bit of a long shot go in. Woohoo!!! For a brief moment, I feel like a pro and am on top of the world. While playing a round of golf you often hear eruptions of celebration from greens all around the course. It is probably what keeps golfers coming back. The biggest celebrations do tend to happen more on the green rather than the tee. Probably because the green is where it really counts. Where you finish it off. As they say ‘drive for show, putt for dough’ and it is so true.

So celebrating successes seems to be something golfers and athletes, in general, do well. It is probably something we could up our game on in everyday life though and in the work context. But what’s the point of it?

Why celebrate?

I have been doing a lot of reading and listening lately on the subject of habits and more specifically on how to form good ones and get out of bad ones.

Research has shown that every time you celebrate a behaviour or accomplishment it releases a hit of dopamine, the ‘feel-good’ chemical. This helps to wire into our brains to repeat that behaviour so that we can feel good again. So in Tiger’s case, it wires his brain to sink more putts.

So if you are trying to get into the habit of drinking more water or making more business development calls or being on time for meetings make sure you give yourself a pat on the back and celebrate each time you do to cement in that behaviour.

According to BJ Fogg, world expert on habit formation and author of  ‘Tiny Habits’ when it comes to creating good habits celebrating is the one step many people are missing. But he says it is crucial. In fact it is so important that he says that if there is just one thing people take away from his book it is the power of celebration. Another point he makes is that you need to celebrate straight after the successful behaviour to link the feel-good factor to that action directly. If you delay then the link can be lost. So for example, while going out for dinner to celebrate a big win is nice and can be motivating to a degree it does not have the same oomph as celebrating it on the spot.

Experiment with your own celebrations 

How you choose to celebrate doesn’t have to be quite as dramatic or public as Tiger’s fist pumps. It can be as simple as telling yourself ‘good job’. Experiment with what works best for you for specific occasions.

For me my natural celebratory outburst is usually a ‘Woohoo!’ and whenever I reach the summit on my regular run up Mt Hobson I raise my arms above my head in victory. A bit cheesy I know but it works for me. Other times I’m a bit more subtle and just smile and think to myself ‘good on you Greta’.

Writing blogs is something I’m trying to get into the habit of doing more regularly so I will definitely be celebrating once I’ve hit the ‘post’ button on this one!