As part of my True Strength project, I’m featuring interviews that dig deep into how people succeed and I was delighted to interview Dawn Smedley of O.C. Tanner alongside her manager Ian Feaver. You can read or listen to the interview Dawn Smedley – True Strength (or download the podcast). Dawn’s story illustrates so many great points about how we succeed, which I’m expanding in several blog posts and the first of which is to celebrate who you are:

In the interview, Dawn talks about the role that self-confidence (and sometimes, lack of it) plays in success. Having the right mindset really help you to succeed but it is all to easy, as Dawn describes, to focus too much on what you’re not going. It is all too easy to get into a cycle of delivering something, focus on what could have gone better and then just get on with the next challenge.

There is real power in what Dawn says, “Sometimes I should just look back and celebrate who I am fundamentally. We all should.” Celebrating successes can be very enjoyable but sometimes we just need to celebrate doing the right things, even if we aren’t yet seeing the results. Sometimes we just need to celebrate who we are. It can help us to develop a much more powerful and resilient mindset.

How do you celebrate who you are?