Small Wins Are the First Step

When you celebrate just one accomplishment you are recognizing yourself for getting the job done.  You are reinforcing this good behavior and that will help you move onto the next thing and get it done too!  It is so much better to build yourself up than beat yourself up.  And if you are celebrating a win on a project, you are one step closer to achieving your goal.  Woohoo!

I created a “Done” list about a year ago.  I challenged myself to do something that scared me or that was out of my comfort zone for 30 days.  I celebrated every breakthrough that I had because some of them were pretty big.  I often found that my task was scarier when I thought about it than when I actually did it. Others gave me a huge sense of joy and accomplishment because I had waited a long time to do them. 

You can also create a list of things that you do every day and then check them off.  This gives you another opportunity to celebrate yourself.  You will eventually realize that you are capable of more than you think you are.  This snowball effect gets you closer to a happier, healthy life.

I wrote about a study by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer in my blog last year, Celebrate Your Wins, and they found that celebrating small wins was motivating, a mood booster, and made people happy, whereas suffering a setback caused frustration, fear, and sadness. It makes sense, and now there’s data to back it up.

I love the imagery that Emma Xu created by saying, “Tiny victories are like gems scattered on your journey, notice them.”  Emma is a physicist and was honored as one of 30 under 30 by Forbes magazine.  She captured the beauty and value of small wins by likening them to gems.  I just love it.  Each small step gets you closer to achieving your goal.  That is one of my foundational principles.  She also says that we need to appreciate them by noticing the small victories.  We will get a lot more out of life if we notice what we accomplish along the way.

That’s the beauty of small wins.  With each small win you become stronger and better and you begin to feel your confidence grow.  You have become the superhero that you have always dreamed of.

Put another way, small wins are like a series of steps on a stairway.  You get closer to the top with each small step you take.  Just keep going.