At the end of the year, a lot of us tend to get reflective and start thinking about what’s coming next. 

One of our Redmond core values is reflection. This is something we do regularly, but especially at the end of the year!

Many of us think of celebration as a reward for our accomplishments. At Redmond, rather than celebrating when we hit milestones (or setting milestones at all) we make space for celebration and reflection. When we reflect, we take time to look around and ask “What progress have we made? What is there to celebrate?” 

Then we make a point of acknowledging our progress no matter how big or small. 

Our Year-End Celebrations

Every year, we have a year-end party in each location. While these parties are a chance to have fun, play games, win prizes, eat amazing food, and hang out with other associates across the company, the main purpose is to reflect on and celebrate how far we’ve come over the past year.

Our culture content team puts together a series of videos that we show at each party; one to specifically review our progress over the past year (in a fun way), one for each location to celebrate them individually (which we show at their respective party), one or two to highlight a core value, and one to spotlight customer reviews. 

This is a chance to reconnect with our purpose and take a look at our progress and momentum from the year past, which propels us into the new year!

And it’s working. We’ve grown each year in so many ways, not just revenue. We’re getting better and better, and we know our runway of possibilities is endless!

Looking Forward vs Looking Backward: Why Celebration and Reflection Help Us Grow

Progress is Motivating

We find it’s MUCH more fun and motivating to measure progress by looking backward, not looking forward. 

In fact, we don’t really measure progress by looking forward or even setting goals at all. (While we do track metrics to know where we are, it’s from a long-term perspective. We use these numbers to measure progress and make projections, but not set targets.)

Why not? How do we get anything done? Why don’t we just set target metrics like normal companies and celebrate when we reach them? 

It’s the same reason why we offer retreats to ALL associates rather than leadership only or as rewards for hitting targets. (Well, one of the reasons.) 

Celebration is not contingent on accomplishment around here. It’s better to show up to the party and ask “What is there to celebrate?” There will always be something!

We know that intrinsic motivation (motivation that comes from internal drive rather than external rewards) is far more powerful than carrots and sticks will ever be, especially in the long run. 

Think about it: The goal-driven paradigm is black and white. You fail if you don’t reach your goal and succeed if you do. The end. 

But what if you ALMOST hit your goal?

You’ve still accomplished a lot! But since you didn’t hit your goal, the goal-driven paradigm says you failed, and then you often FEEL like you failed. 

Goals cause us to rush around and miss our progress, the gift in the moment, and joy in general. If we look forward, we feel deficient, because we only see how far we have to go and what we DIDN’T do. 

It’s really hard to create a life of meaning and purpose with this black-and-white mindset!

Reflection Shows Us What’s Working

If we look backward, we can see how far we’ve come and what we’ve accomplished. We can see cause and effect, what’s working and what’s not. We can’t see any of that if we only look forward because we can’t see the future, or what will get us there.

We reflect more on our wins than our losses because it shows us what to do more of. We can see what went well and why, and then build on it. We feel much more motivated, which gives us momentum to move forward.

As a bonus, you might realize you accomplished some things you didn’t even plan to do. That’s also worth exploring and celebrating!

Celebration Brings Us Together

We love looking back on all we’ve accomplished and saying “Look at what we did together!” (Waaaay better than trust falls and corny activities that try to force connection, right? Again, looking backward > looking forward!) 

Celebration is Fulfilling 

Goals put fulfillment off until “when.” Often, we don’t even get there because as soon as we arrive, we keep looking forward and see how much further we have to go!

Celebration helps us feel fulfilled NOW, not when we hit an arbitrary goal. The whole point of work (as we see it) is to elevate the human experience and feel fulfilled. We want to do that all along the way, on the whole journey. We’ll never arrive, so what’s the point of holding off on celebration until we do?

Celebrating our progress and momentum helps us love the process. We understand that there’s always room for improvement, but this excites us! We see the possibilities as endless, and we know that where we are is pretty great, and we also have the potential to grow.

How do we celebrate?

Specifically, what kinds of things do we celebrate? Here are just a few things we might acknowledge in our celebration (but “progress” can cover a lot of things!).

• Customer reviews
• New products
• Revenue growth
• Team growth
• Product sold
• Process improvements
• Rebrands
• Green team initiatives (how much water and electricity we save, etc.)
• New equipment, equipment we fixed, etc. 

There are so many ways to measure progress.

We review this, and then we enjoy games, prizes, food, food, and more food. That’s celebration the Redmond way!

How to celebrate in your life, with your people

How can you adopt this principle of reflection and celebration in your own life, especially as we wrap up the year and head into a new one?

This is going to look different for everyone, so find what works best for you!

You can do this in a journal, talking with another person, or even just taking a few minutes to sit and think about it. Take yourself out for lunch or coffee or make yourself a snack to go with it. (You can also do this throughout the year, and we hope you do!)

First, schedule reflection and celebration. Maybe you want to do this at the end of the year or on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis.

Then, ask some or all of the following questions:

• What is there to celebrate? 
• What’s working? What’s not? Why? 
• How have you progressed? Where did you start? Where are you now?
• What are your wins? What allowed those wins to happen?

Pro-tip from a member of the culture team:

A fun way to do this is to write a letter to your future self on New Year’s Eve to open New Year’s Eve of next year. Write about where you are now, what you’re currently working on and struggling with, your current wins, etc. When you read it in a year, you’ll really see how far you’ve come!

Take Time to Reflect and Celebrate 

Celebration allows us to slow down, see where we are, get excited about how far we’ve come, and feel good about it. From that place, we can then think about what’s possible for us in a positive, encouraging way.

Don’t forget to take time to acknowledge where you are and how far you’ve come.

Every once in a while, ask yourself: what is there to celebrate? How have I grown? What am I proud of? 

Then watch how your progress picks up momentum!

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