Just Celebrate IT!

Stop Waiting to Celebrate

Have you ever found yourself mentally preventing yourself from celebrating or acknowledging something positive because you were waiting for it to be better or more, or bigger?

Like losing a pound at the start of the new year- you don’t celebrate because you are trying to lose 10. Or having success with one element of a project but you haven’t completed it yet so you wait. Or making it 50% of the way to your target number for anything, but you are waiting on the 100%.

What if you didn’t make it all the way? Is that failure? Do you now abandon any celebration?

What if life just takes you out temporarily? An illness, tragedy, change in job or role?

I have always had a very difficult time celebrating the ‘small’ or ‘early’ wins and successes.

I wonder if that was the Generation X in me – we DID NOT  get participation ribbons (I’m ok with that).

When I was a police investigator I often dismissed files if they didn’t go to court and secure a conviction. Over the years that started to feel exhausting.

So much work and effort and then to sit in court to hear ‘not guilty’ or files that received ‘stay of proceedings’, often because of legal matters completely beyond my control.

That didn’t seem to matter though, I would hang my head and feel emotionally defeated.

But then I started to get feedback from the victims and families of these files. I would find myself nervous to meet with them after the court process ‘failed’ but to my surprise, they were mostly expressing gratitude, thanking me, telling me that my work and effort is what changed things for them.

It was a like a little light went off. I didn’t ever celebrate, but it made the loss feel less heavy.

But I had an experience this week and it made me stop and think about this.

Because sometimes the ‘win’ you have today is the “WIN”. Why minimize it for something that you think is bigger or better.

Don’t get me wrong, I will take the bigger and better if is shows up, but if it doesn’t, what’s wrong with the win I got?- Nothing is wrong with it.

For these files the win could have been getting the person counselling, seeing them leave a toxic relationship, having them physically recover from the accident, maybe even that the file taught me and my team something.

Fast forward to yesterday I was preparing for a media interview about my book Tightrope.

I have been asked by many people “how is the book doing?”. For context it was published formally on November 20^th 2025, just leading up to Christmas.

I decided in my own mind earlier what “success” was but silently inside of course I hoped the book would do well, be well received and I would hear from people who read it.

So I decided I might as well get a sense of it, I googled myself and the book asking how the book was doing on Amazon- both in Canada and the United States.

Now to be clear- Amazon ‘Best Seller’ status changes daily, that’s because it is actually based on sales of the book (daily).

Here is what came back to me:

• “As of February 2026, Tightrope: Balancing Duty with Courage and Conviction has achieved top rankings in specific niche categories On Amazon. Law Enforcement Biographies & Memoirs: Ranked as high as #14 (Kindle) and #42 (Paperback) in this category.

• Law Enforcement (Books): Ranked #15 for the paperback version.

• Criminal Law Enforcement (Books): Ranked #25 for the paperback version.

• Women's Biographies: Ranked #314 in the general Women's Biographies category. 

I sat and thought about that for several minutes. I copy and pasted the results so I could keep it.

It changes daily, so tomorrow I could be higher or I could be lower.

Here is the thing, just like an athlete who keeps improving and getting faster, stronger, more skilled. There comes a point when they have hit the ‘peak’ of their performance. They never know exactly when that is going to be.

So they over celebrate Each Goal- maybe it’s their last, they don’t know.

I’m not saying that after a few weeks of my book being published I am packing it in and calling it a day, not at all, but I am going to start to celebrate it more.

The people it has brought into my life, the feedback I get from strangers, the comfort in knowing that my story is relateable and that I am not odd for having had these experiences.

I have already been asked if I am going to write another book.

My answer is: “what would it be about?”.

I also know that if I do nothing else other than enjoy my slow-paced mornings, walk my dogs, engage fully with my kids, spend time with my spouse, travel, grow my garden, cook from scratch, and laugh with my friends, well then that would be more than enough.

Celebrate your wins.

Jump up and down, give the acceptance speech- early if needed.

Life comes at us fast and will always be unpredictable.

Today, I am an Amazon Best Selling Author- it doesn’t matter what tomorrow says.