In a society that is obsessed with success, social proof, and shiny object syndrome, celebrating small wins seems everything but important or even necessary. However, if we neglect to acknowledge that small wins are still wins and that they are worth celebrating, we may be setting ourselves up for failure or at least a lot of frustration on the way to success. Today I’m here to share with you why I believe celebrating small wins is important, and how celebrating small wins leads to big wins and success.
What does it mean to celebrate small wins?
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Celebrating small wins means that you acknowledge the small successes you have along the way whilst working for your big wins. I love to listen to a guy called Brendon Burchard (you may have heard about him) and he’s a high-performance coach and definitely one of the leaders in his industry. He talks about the importance of celebrating small wins and them being the foundation for our big wins, and I absolutely agree with him.
Celebrating small wins means that you take the time to stop and reflect on your progress and how far you’ve come on your journey, no matter what you’re trying to achieve, because true success is built on the journey, not the final destination.
Why is celebrating small wins important?
If you’ve been following me on here long enough, you’ll know that I usually go the opposite direction of where many people are going, and not just for the sake of it, but because I like to think with my own head.
We see it all the time, especially through social media, how people just love to talk about and show their successes, and how everyone is trying to “make it” to a certain destination – which is their own definition of success.
But the problem is that nobody becomes successful overnight, and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done behind the scenes before getting to that point. But that point will involve sacrifice, tears, difficult decisions, but if you stick to it long enough, you’ll gradually start growing every day and making progress towards your destination.
Many people believe that celebrating small wins isn’t really that important because they’re not “IT”, they’re not the final destination. However, in my opinion, the final destination is made up of all the moments that bring you closer to it, every single day.
To give you a very practical and simple example, when a baby is going through the growing phase, they first start crawling, then walking, then they’ll eventually be running around and will barely ever stop. When a baby takes their first steps, NO parent disregards that because the baby isn’t running yet. They don’t wait until the baby will be running to celebrate, they don’t think those first, wobbly steps are not good enough to be celebrated.
Most parents long for the moment their baby will take the first steps, they film them, take pictures, send them to family and friends, clap at their baby’s first step.
Have they started running yet? No, and they likely won’t for another while. Does that mean those first steps aren’t worth celebrating? ABSOLUTELY NOT. And this is exactly why I want you to understand that acknowledging and celebrating your small wins is essential to getting to the final destination and reaching success.
So I want to share with you 3 reasons why (in my opinion) celebrating small wins is essential to achieve success.
You build up your confidence
Moving onto a business-related example, when I did my first ever IG live with another entrepreneur, I was VERY nervous, because I don’t really like being on camera. And my goal wasn’t really to have hundreds of people watch us or have anything come out of it except me getting out of my comfort zone and doing something new and important for my business.
So after I did that first live that day, I did a happy dance, I looked at myself in the mirror and I told myself that I was proud of me, and I shared the moment with my mum who proceeded to tell me how proud she was and how that was just the beginning.
And now that I try to do lives more frequently, I’m still not 100% (and I have no problem in sharing this openly), but I’m a lot more confident than I was that first time because if I did it then, I can do it every other time after that.
Had I not celebrated that small win that day, I’d probably still feel extremely nervous about going live on Instagram, I’d doubt myself and my ability to show up live, and I’d most likely procrastinate and avoid doing it until “a better time”.
2. You gain motivation
One of the things that everyone struggles with, and especially entrepreneurs, is motivation. You see, the entrepreneurial journey is a rollercoaster of emotions, and though many people like to share their success online, not as many like to talk about the lack of motivation and the struggle in getting things done.
Especially when it takes time and effort to achieve certain goals and results don’t come straight away, it’s easy to want to give up or put in less work and become a bit complacent.
So another reason why I believe celebrating small wins is important, it’s because it helps us to keep our motivation at a good level, even when things aren’t going great. Remembering all the things we’ve already achieved, pushes us to continue to put in the work even when it’s taking time to see the results, and will help us to be consistent and achieve success in the long run.
If you’re someone who struggles a lot with finding motivation and taking action when lacking it, I suggest you read this post.
3. You become the best version of yourself
Like I was saying before, everyone seems to be obsessed with celebrating the big wins, and arriving at their destination. Please understand, I don’t believe there’s anything wrong about it, in fact, I’m all for celebrating the big wins and making it to achieving the big goals, but only when that is accompanied by celebrating the small wins.
I believe also that true change within us happens in the journey, not when we make it to the destination. It’s in the hard work, the failures, the mistakes, the joys, the small wins, that we learn the most about ourselves and what we’re capable of, and we truly become the best version of ourselves by working on our mindset, our habits, our actions, which are what will truly lead to success.
Talking about habits, you should check out this post I wrote about the best habits you can adopt to achieve success.
If you’re on the entrepreneurial journey, no matter what product you sell or what niche you’re in, YOU are the common denominator to everything, so it’s essential to know how you’re growing and evolving as a person and entrepreneur, IN the journey, and I believe that celebrating small wins helps you to do just that.
How do you celebrate wins?
Now that we’ve understood why it’s important to celebrate small wins, let’s have a look at how we can celebrate them.
To be honest, this is completely personal to you, but I just wanted to share a few simple ideas with you that you can try out for yourself.
Keep a record
Whether that’s visual, written, or recorded, make sure that you make a note of what you’ve achieved, so that it’s documented somewhere and you can always refer to it whenever you need to.
2. Share it with someone
I believe healthy accountability is essential in business as it is in every other area of life, which is why sharing your small wins with someone you trust and who cares about you, will help you to continue going in the right direction and work hard towards achieving your goals.
3. Treat yourself
I’m definitely part of the self-care movement, and I believe that it’s essential to treat ourselves regularly. Especially when it comes to small wins, I’m all for celebrating them by treating yourself. Sometimes that can look like going out for dinner, or buying that thing you’ve had on your wish list for a while, or having a full spa day, or doing whatever else feels like a treat to you.
4. Take time off
Another thing you should know about me is that I’m ALL for scheduling rest and time off. Especially when it comes to celebrating a small win (or a big one!), I think taking time off is well deserved. Typically, I always choose to go live on Instagram in the afternoon, so that I can spend the morning doing some work and then I can completely unplug for the rest of the day.
As I shared before, doing IG lives is a constant work in progress for me, and especially because a big part of me is an introvert, I get drained of quite a lot of my energy, so whenever I go live, I always take the rest of the afternoon off to celebrate my win and recharge my batteries.
5. Get silly
Whether that’s doing a happy dance, dressing up for no reason, or bringing back the inner child that’s in you, you can do whatever feels right to you to celebrate your small wins. I just love to look at children and see how excited they get over their accomplishments (no matter how small they are), and they don’t care about what they look like on the outside, or how silly they may be, they just want to celebrate. So take it from the little people and get silly for a while!
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Conclusion on the 3 reasons why celebrating small wins is essential for success
Thank you for reading through the entire post friend, it’s always an honour to share my thoughts and advice with you, and I hope you found this helpful. As I’ve been sharing throughout this entire post, I truly believe that the final destination is made up of all the little wins we gain along the way, and it’s essential to celebrate them.
So make sure that you constantly remind yourself that celebrating small wins is essential for success and that you are your biggest cheerleader!
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