Celebrating "you" is the most important thing you can do for you, today.

Hello, this is Thomas Anglero for the Soul of Innovation podcast. I apologize for my voice. This past weekend I put on the old sneakers, I guess shoes because I'm a coach, and I am back to coaching basketball after taking 2 years off from coaching. I coached for, wow, 14 years in a row and came back. And because, well, I'm not a coach who sits down and stays quiet, I lost my voice yelling through 3 games in 24 hours, so I apologize. But while I was out there experiencing the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat— that sucked— I saw something that I wanted to share, a reflection, an experience that I want us all to understand because it's really valuable, really powerful stuff. And that was that the team I was coaching has had— and this, let's look at this reflection not just from a sports point of view but also from a business point of view, and also maybe from a project point of view. You're in school, all these things, these stories are all relative and all the same. So the team that I'm coaching, they've had a long history of where the team just has not gelled together. They've had bad coaches in the past, they've had bad bosses if you're in your job or something like that, or if you're in school, you have some bad teachers, and the team has not been able to develop. Not to their fullest, not even halfway to their fullest. And they— and we're talking about investing years into this, and each of the players, each of the students, workers, whatever, they feel that they haven't gotten the attention they receive. They don't feel that they individually have achieved a level that they should have achieved after all these years of working at this, at giving their effort or showing up to practice. And this weekend something amazing happened. The magic happened. We played a game on Saturday and we were playing as a very, very good team. We were up for 3 quarters and in the 4th quarter the kids just lost it. They had lost their energy and therefore we lost the game. And their heads were down and they felt like, God, this is just the same old thing, you know. And then on Sunday morning in our first game, we played against the number 2 team in all of Norway. And these kids went out there and they gave it their all and they beat them and they won. We won. Our kids beat the number 2 team. This team of kids who— people who just felt that we can never gotten together, we cannot figure it out, um, we're underdeveloped, we don't have a good enough talent, uh, I'm thinking about stopping what I'm doing, I'm thinking about leaving this— all the negative things that you put in your head when you're down on yourself, on yourself, multiplied by 15 because there are 15 of them.

This combination makes for an extremely negative environment.

And what happened afterwards? After they won that game, they did something they never did before. They celebrated their victory. They got together And they walk— they had another game in 2 hours afterwards. They had a doubleheader, so they, they had enough, a 2-hour break, then another game. So they all got together and they walked to the store to get food together, and they were jumping on each other's shoulders. They were telling stories and they were laughing. They were celebrating their success for the first time in 7 years of playing together, winning. They've won before They've lost before, they lost more than they won, but the first time they actually came together as a team and they understood that one of the most important things was not just a victory— of course it was a great and very important victory, they all said it was the biggest victory of their 7-year career— they celebrated it. So the reflection, the thing I learned from that was, my God, how important is it that one, that after you do something with the group that you're working with, the team that you're on, that you enjoy each other's company afterwards.

Whether you— what you delivered, or whether the outcome was a win or a loss, or the homework was acceptable or not acceptable, it is so damn important to get together and bond. You could bond in sorrow, you can bond in happiness, but to get together and bond, that's why we're here. We get so caught up on focusing on that end result, and it's not the end result, right? The end is, is all the things that led up to that end result. And because this is basketball, my God, how many shots and how many rebounds and how many passes and all these details of the sport.

And the same thing in a project— how many deliveries do you have? How many times you're up late at night working really hard.

If you're in school, homework assignment, how many books you got to read, how many papers you wrote, how many things you have to rewrite. My God, it's, you know, endless. But you got to celebrate. You got to celebrate the short-term victories. You got to celebrate the long-term victories. We have to celebrate a hell of a lot more. Otherwise, if you do not do that, you have this other perspective, this other way of living your life, which everything is, oh my God, I gotta do this.

Oh, this is taking so long.

Oh, oh, oh, you're killing yourself. It's not your boss, it's not the coach, it's not the other team, whatever, whatever, whatever. It's you. Those kids reminded me, those kids reminded me when I saw them leaving the gym when they're going to the store. The biggest guy jumped on the littlest guy's shoulder. It was hysterical. Usually the little guy jumping on the big guy's shoulder. It was the other way. The big guy turned into the little kid. The little kid was like the big guy. They reminded me of the beauty of celebrating the little things, the successes. This season is not even close to being over. It just started. And they bonded together because they chose to take a moment to celebrate together. And that has brought those group of guys together, and it will last the next 10 months of this season, whether we lose every single game or win the rest. That was the foundation moment, and it was created by a bunch of kids. They created a foundation moment for the rest of their lives, and they're only 17 years old. When's the last time you created a foundation moment for you? Don't say somebody else was supposed to do this. Don't say my boss, oh, he doesn't have any activities at work that brings us all together. It's up to you.

This is the beauty of where you call somebody or email somebody or text, I don't care, and you say, hey, you like to meet me for coffee? Would you like to meet me for a beer? You like me for a glass of wine? Would you like to meet me for a walk? You just created that moment. We have to celebrate these moments and create these moments so much more. There is no endgame. The saddest thing— this is about as negative I could ever get— is the endgame is death. Really? Jesus Christ, that's horrible. So I mean, what the hell are you racing for? If you want to put it in the analogy of a race, think of it as, uh, when you're putting on your shoes, celebrate you just tied your right shoelace perfectly.

Hey, you know, celebrate my left shoelace tied perfectly. Hey, I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but if you have that perspective on life where every little thing you celebrate, how happy you're going to be? How many times you're going to laugh and smile to yourself throughout the day? A lot. And there's no way you're going to have a bad day. There's absolutely no way. I remember watching some show and then the people— and there's this guy running around town smiling and he's always joking around and people think he's crazy. And the guy in the show, the guy says, hey, who is this guy? What's wrong with him? And they go, oh, that's just the village idiot.

Don't pay attention to him.

And I'm like, yo, the village idiot figured it out. He has a life of being happy. He has a life of going around smiling. He will probably outlive everybody in that town, plus everybody watching the damn show. Think about it. Don't you want to go around being happy, or you just want to go around with worrying about what other people think about you? Forget that. It's your life.

When's the last time you celebrated A little success. Did you celebrate one today? As you listen to me now, what did you celebrate today? If you haven't celebrated anything today, take a moment, hold on, and think to yourself, what can I celebrate now from today? What should I have celebrated? And go celebrate. You can celebrate by going— I mean, if you— if it was me, when I want to celebrate something, I get out of the office, I get out of the building, I go find where the sun is, and I stand in the sunlight with my eyes closed. I'm just feeling that beautiful sun, taking in the air. Ain't nothing better than that. From a chemical point of view, that is massive drugs that you're giving yourself, but all the endorphins kicking in, everything else kicking in, and it's free. Celebrate. If you're into a glass of wine, drink a glass of wine, whatever you're into, but celebrate yourself. That's what I learned from a bunch of 17-year-old kids who won a simple basketball game on a Sunday afternoon. They reminded me that we must celebrate ourselves, or what's the point? Go forth, spread beauty and light. Take a moment to find something to celebrate. If not right now, whenever you get to wherever you're going, or whenever you finish whatever you're doing, celebrate that. I know it sounds strange, but it's your life that you're celebrating. You just finished that assignment? Celebrate it. You just finished that thought? Celebrate it. Think about it. How much happier would you be celebrating you multiple times a day. Life is about celebrating you, so celebrate you. This is Thomas Anglero for the Soul Invasion Podcast. If you want to know more, you go to anglero.com, and you can also find me on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and all those wonderful social media things. I really do enjoy sharing these stories because these stories, I know we all think about these things, but we sometimes just don't know how to get it out of our heads. I think this little one is probably an important one. Life is about celebrating you. So do that. Love yourself some more. How about this? Love yourself a lot more. Take care, till the next time.