Celebrate the Small Wins

I was trying to help my daughter Sarah study for an algebra exam (truth be told, I wasn’t much help as I have forgotten how to do most of it). She was overwhelmed by the complexity and time it took to complete each equation, coupled with the sheer amount of problems she had to solve. To her credit she was methodically going through her material and figuring it out step by step (without much help from her father). Despite her successes along the way, she couldn’t stop focusing on how much she still had to do. I took this opportunity to teach her the importance of why to celebrate the small wins.

The challenge for driven people is that we are rarely where we want to be, and it’s hard to appreciate anything short of our ultimate goal. If you are a perfectionist, it’s even more difficult because anything short of that ultimate goal is a disappointment.

Think about any sport, why does a team that is losing badly suddenly experience a surge of momentum? It’s because they are focusing on the small wins, one play at a time. If successful, they eventually take the lead and win the game.

The point is that the celebration of incremental wins allows you to get more focused on the moment. It’s a way to maintain a positive state of mind that keeps you on the path towards your larger goals.

As you are tackling that long project at work, and you experience a small win, take a break. End your day on a small win if it’s possible. This will help keep you motivated for your next step in the process.

If you think of life as a ride, in order to truly appreciate that ride, you must celebrate the small wins. It’s a way of stopping to “smell the roses” along the way. It also makes your big goals more gratifying when you reach them.

If you have examples in your life where your ability to celebrate the small wins lead to you reaching a larger goal please share the story and as always, if you know anyone that can benefit this message, I simply ask that you “like it” and pass it along.