Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success"

Browse, preview/purchase any of Allen James' publications at the following links and receive 25% off retail:

www.jamesharryman2002.wix.com/allenjamesbooks
www.lulu.com/spotlight/allenjames1961

Calendar Books by Allen James' reading for July 23rd, from "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success",

"Celebrate" (James, 2012).

Every time we turn around it seems there is a holiday to celebrate. Maybe it just appears this way to me since I'm in education, where we live by quarters/semesters and time flies truly does fly when we live by such a regimented schedule.

However; according to life coach guest blogger, Tom Volkar, "celebration may just be the most underutilized tool in our toolbox. Some view celebration as soft or slacking off – like we aren’t really doing anything. Nothing could be further from the truth. Celebration is a pivotal stage in the productivity process because it allows us to commemorate all the good that we do.

"Unlike indigenous cultures, in the western world, we have forgotten many of our traditions, ceremonies and celebrations especially around the work that we do. In the name of progress, our culture has lessened rejoicing over everyday occurrences like sunrises and important seasonal events like harvest time. We need to remember that when the crops are safely in, it’s time to dance and make merry.

"Gratitude is the causative energy of appreciation that blesses us with ease and greater flow. Celebration is self-acknowledgment and recognition for successfully completing every small step. Completion is the triumphant achievement of our objective and our signal to proceed forward to the freshness of discovery. Here are five good reasons to celebrate more often.

Celebration helps us stay in the present where our power is. By celebrating the completion of every small step, we leverage the powerful energies of gratitude and momentum. Thomas Edison taught us that even each mistake along the way is cause for celebration. Life is all about the journey, and that means that every step, as well as reaching our destination, is part of our journey. Celebrating at every juncture is recognition of a life well lived and well worked.

"Celebration builds self-respect. Others treat us according to how we treat ourselves. It’s important to hold yourself in high regard. Perhaps, like me, your early caregivers did not celebrate your presence and special glow. Celebration overwrites this limited conditioning and tips the balance of your internal programming so that it’s more natural to think well of yourself.

"Celebration feeds our basic human need for self-love and self-acceptance. Celebration is emotional nourishment. Yet sometimes we simply don’t feel like celebrating because we’ve fallen into the habit of harshly judging ourselves. When this happens, there is a negative feeling remaining in our bodies from a challenging event in our past.

"Celebration is positive magnification. What we focus on expands. When we downplay or skip celebration, we are telling ourselves that we haven’t done enough to be proud of ourselves – so our self-doubt is what expands.

"Sometimes we lament our lack of progress and go on fruitless searches for the answer. But often what’s missing is as simple as a little jig of recognition or bursting out in spontaneous song.
Your very being is enough reason to celebrate. Select a project or any progress that makes you feel good and join Kool and the Gang in Celebration of your achievement (coreu.com)!


Celebration does not always seem appropriate.  A few days ago I mentioned having lost my close childhood through adulthood best friend, Jamie.  Our social customs unfortunately skew celebration of death to new life through our expression of loss via funerals.  I see it so differently, as other do I realize; however, for me death is a natural transition as we morph into the next leg of our journeys; the afterlife.  Knowing Jamie as I DO, I know what a celebration he would desire his friends, family, and loved one would be expressing as he makes this exciting journey onward.  I celebrate his accomplishments, his love toward others, his appreciation of earthly life, but most highly, his love for his Creator.


Celebrate!  Celebrate good and bad times; for certainly, we only live each second once, and how fast those seconds turn into decades.




Keep looking up. : ) AJ