Making Cent$ is a monthly newsletter by Mira Katz dedicated to the taboo topics that affect creatives in business, with a focus in female founders, but still applicable for everyone. Best enjoyed with a cup of ☕️ and a 🥐.
I got all excited...
I thought this was going to be a celebration newsletter after one year of dedicated writing. But, alas, there’s still a ways to go.
So instead, I’ll do what I always do: a deep dive into the psychological, existential, and practical sides of a topic that I think is extremely relevant and often overlooked... CELEBRATING!
Here we go.
What Comes To Mind?
When I think of celebrations, a few obvious things come to mind: birthdays, weddings, and holidays. You too, right? Those are most often the reasons to celebrate.
But what do they actually represent? (Spoiler alert: NOTHING)
Birthdays are the passage of intervals of 365 days from the day you were born, which is honestly quite random and not meaningful at all. That being said, I’m obsessed with birthdays. A wedding is an arbitrary day that the venue of your choice was available that you chose to celebrate a love that was very real far before that day (I LOVE WEDDINGS BY THE WAY… I’M JUST SAYING). And holidays are designed for everyone to celebrate something that OTHER people decided was important. Again, on an arbitrary day.
I’m just gonna say it: I think we’ve got celebrations all wrong.
Celebrations, in my opinion, should mark a real change in real time with the people who are most important to you. I think we should celebrate job promotions, personal milestones, relevant worldly events, and sometimes I think we should celebrate simply being alive.
Celebrations, in my opinion, should mark a real change in real time with the people who are most important to us.
Cheers to what?
I had dinner with a group of girlfriends the other night, and everyone thought it was funny that I gathered them for no reason at all, and that it wasn’t even my birthday.
After ordering an incredible bottle of wine, I requested that we toast to what each one of us was celebrating in that very moment. As it turns out, we ALL had something to celebrate.
One friend just bought her first house, CHEERS! One friend just booked a trip to a dream destination, CHEERS!!! One friend just visited her family for the first time in 5 years and nothing bad happened…. CHEERS!!!!!!
Celebration is when we share our personal accomplishments with our community, and we welcome joy, enthusiasm, and encouragement for what is most important to us.
If we skip a celebration, we skip an opportunity to forge a deeper connection with those who love us. We miss the chance to receive support. Celebration is central to community building.
If we skip a celebration, we skip an opportunity to forge a deeper connection with those who love us.
Small Stuff
What about the little wins? I say celebrate those too. Did you discover a new brand of mouth-watering cheese? I’d say celebrate by throwing a wine and cheese party for a few close friends. Or just you and your partner / roommate / bestie / whatever applies.
Did you just resolve an ongoing tax problem and are officially in the clear? Get up and dance and tell a friend. Heck, go out and make a night of it.
Life is rough and complicated, and we tend to linger on our challenges and strife. It takes a conscious effort to identify what’s going well, but it can help rebalance the scale and set a more healthy perspective on your life in general. There might be more little good things than little bad things, in the end. And that can make you feel a hell of a lot better.
It takes a conscious effort to identify what's going well, but it can help rebalance the scale.
BIIIG STUFFF
Here are some celebrations that I think are just as important as a wedding: moving abroad, returning from abroad, buying a new home, a healthy breakup, a project that just put you on the map either locally or globally, your first million (pesos, dollars, followers, points on duolingo or whatever), adopting a dog, getting a drastic haircut that suits your bone structure, recovering from surgery, healing a family wound.
I can go on. But you get the idea.
There are so many milestones we will reach in life, and if we forget to celebrate, we are missing the whole point. Don’t hold out for birthdays and Veterans day alone. There’s so much more available!
How to Do it
Party planning comes very easily to me. I celebrate the day of Sunday, and often invite all my friends for homemade pastries and coffee to celebrate the end of the weekend and the start of a new week. But if you’re not like me (likely), and party planning isn’t your thing (normal), I came up with some ideas for you.
- Become friends with a great party planner.
- Invite a friend over for your favorite takeout.
- Make a ritual of going to the movies and ordering your favorite popcorn.
- Start a collection of something and add to it each time you reach a milestone.
- Journal about it.
- Call a friend.
- Go dancing.
To All the Friends Out There
A big burden falls on you too, by the way. If you get a call and someone shares a significant update, CELEBRATE THEM. Offer to take them out for dinner or an ice cream or a popsicle. It’s not about the scale or seriousness of the gesture, as long as you do something that makes it clear that you’re saying “hey, this is important to you, and I see you, and I’m here with you.”
And if all else fails, I challenge you to do what I did with my girlfriends the other day. Ask your people what they’re celebrating in this moment. Big or small. And then rejoice genuinely.
I hope this makes sense,
Mira
