Celebrating the Small Wins

Celebrating small wins is an impactful strategy towards uplifting our overall quality of life. Who doesn’t love the experience of joy, big or small? Who doesn’t love feeling purposeful and productive? How do we reach our BIG goals, without reaching our little goals in the process?

Underestimating our small wins can identify with a variety of factors. Perhaps we have excessive personal standards, we don’t feel good enough, we are comparing ourselves to others, we think that one simple accomplishment is insignificant to our perceptions of “should”, to name a few. But who decides our standards of “should”? We may often make up scenarios in our mind about what we should do, what is good enough. Whose standards are these? If they are our own (and are not actually influenced by our perception of external standards set by society), why not take a moment to appreciate our own efforts as we take one incremental step towards our potential? Macro goals are met through micro efforts -- or in other words -- every tiny Lego block counts, when building a large figure!

When we celebrate each micro effort, there is potential to re-wire our brain to genuinely appreciate our small wins, a subconscious encourager to continue chasing more small wins through our daily rituals. How can our body give us more of what we want, if we don’t connect the brain networks that subconsciously lead us to attaining these desires?

By celebrating what you want, you are creating brain connections that can lead us on a path to continued abundance of similar opportunities! How will our brain networks know what we want if we don’t actively connect the heart desires and appreciation of each positive outcome to the brain? The heart and the brain are a magical duo. 

Joy is meant to be streamlined in life; it is not an all-or-nothing way of being, joy comes and goes. While our levels of joy will vary, it is in these simple, everyday opportunities that we can work towards gaining incremental moments of personal satisfaction, not an instant return to full enjoyment.

What would we celebrate for our family, friends, our loved ones? Take a moment to imagine your loved one tackling a very important task. They are stressed about their abilities and don’t necessarily believe they can overcome this challenge. You’ve seen their work ethic, dedication and passion. You believe they can do it, in fact you know they will do it, yet wonder, why can’t they see what I see? Flash forward to the day your loved one successfully tackles the obstacle; you are so happy for them! You feel this excitement as if it was your own accomplishment. You congratulate them and expect a celebratory response, but they are acting as if it was just another hurdle that came and went, while the next thing to worry about is just around the corner. You can’t believe your loved one is not soaking in this personal accomplishment. So, you can objectively see they have a long way to go with future challenges, but they just overcame a hurdle or requirement in their journey, and you are feeling proud.

Now take a moment to imagine yourself, preparing for a relatable situation. Do you encompass the fear that you objectively witnessed in your loved one? What is different about how you observed their situation? After overcoming this challenge, are you celebrating your small win as you would have for your loved-one’s accomplishment? Why can’t we celebrate ourselves with the standards we have towards the ones we love? You are on your individual journey, this in itself is something to celebrate! Small steps, big steps -- all steps get you somewhere.

Be proud and joyous, even for a moment! Use these accomplishments, no matter how small, as fuel for your own flame. The world needs your fire.

Are you interested in exploring ways to make personal, demonstratable change and achieve optimal well-being? Contact our intake team to inquire about the benefits of Psychotherapy or Life Coaching.

Amanda Maitland, RP (Q)