This is a lesson I learned last year from my friend Catherine. I happened to mention to her that How To Change The World was being published in the US on the day we met, and she asked what I was doing to celebrate.
Er, nothing, I said. I'm going home to make dinner (as usual).
She looked shocked, and disappointed, and challenged me to see that I would once have been ecstatic to have a book published anywhere at all. And of course she was right.
“If you don't celebrate the achievements,” she pointed out, “even achievements that you don't think especially enormous, you will always be focused on your To Do list and you will never feel that you are getting anywhere.”
So I changed my plans, went out for a meal with H and N, and told them before we started eating: “This is a special meal to celebrate my book being published in America, which makes me feel very happy.” They seemed very happy to celebrate with me. (Odd that I should have thought they might not.)