Festive Fridays: Celebrating Achievements

There’s nothing like the feeling of accomplishment when you reach a goal or finish something that you’ve worked hard to complete. Hard-fought achievements should be celebrated, no matter how big or small. Recently, my middle son finally broke a time in swimming that he’d trained and fought to reach for months on end. Though the accomplishment itself was a reward, we wanted to mark the occasion with something fun and encourage him to keep setting goals and working hard to reach them.

Here are just a few ideas that came to mind as we were trying to come up with a way to celebrate him reaching his goal.

Enjoy a special treat or meal – We ended up taking our boy out for pizza and ice cream to celebrate reaching the time cut he’d been working for since summer. Whether it’s just a pit stop for an ice cream cone, getting to choose the menu for an evening meal at home, or going out for an elaborate celebratory dinner, special food is always a hit for special occasions.

Go on a family outing – For big achievements, you might want to go all out and plan a family fun day. Celebrate things like a full year of honor roll or a big promotion with a day filled with all of your family’s favorite activities. Go to the zoo, visit an amusement park, or spend a day together at the pool. Whatever your family loves, make it a big day of celebration!

Give a related reward – One of the things that we considered was giving a reward directly related to the goal. In our case, we considered purchasing a new, fancy swim bag or a new practice suit. In other sports, you may want to give a new piece of equipment or tickets to a pro game. You could also buy special t-shirt or themed piece of jewelry to serve as a reminder of a job well done.

Create an award certificate or frame a photo – If you want something that creates a reminder of the accomplishment, you can use imaging software to create a certificate or special photo memento.  There are lots of templates that can be found online to use with whatever software programs you have access to that will help you make something perfect for them to commemorate reaching a goal.

Want some ideas for fun family time to celebrate a big goal? Check out our Pinterest board!