by, Dee A. Rowe, Basic B Finds Balance
Once upon a time, there was a woman with a dream. She knew the best way to make a dream a reality is turning it into a goal, so she did. Then, she developed a plan for achieving her goal. It seemed like nothing could stop her. She even had a reward plan in mind for when the dream became reality. What she didn’t do was celebrate tiny victories along the way. After months of consistent effort towards her goal, she didn’t feel like she was any closer to it, even though she was. It felt like all the hard work she put in was wasted. She struggled onward for a while longer, but in the end, she gave up on her dream. I tried, she said, but it didn’t work out for me. If only she knew the secret, it could’ve been different.
What secret? The one thing the woman forgot was to celebrate tiny victories along the way. If she had, she would’ve been more able to stick with it. She should’ve rewarded her achievements along the way instead of holding out for a big bang at the end. Read on to find out why this little trick could’ve made all the difference, and how you can avoid the same fate as the woman who quit her dream.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links, which means that if you click through and make a purchase, I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Celebrate Tiny Victories To Stay Motivated
According to research on positive psychology when you celebrate tiny victories often, it has a bigger impact on morale than waiting for one big reward once you achieve your goal. That’s because the most effective motivation boost is progress. The more you experience the positive feelings associated with making progress, the more motivated you will be. The more motivated you are, the more productive you will be. Increased productivity leads to more progress. Do you see the cycle?
A disclosure about progress and boosting motivation: making progress only matters to you if what you’re doing matters to you. If you’re doing work that you see no meaning in, making progress is not going to flood you with positive emotions like it would if your heart was in it. This is why your “why”, or reason for doing something, is so important. It injects meaning into the work, allowing progress to act as a motivation miracle boost.
Celebrate Tiny Victories To Overcome Setbacks
Setbacks happen, no matter how talented and fabulous you are, and no matter how hard you work towards a goal. They are like taxes, one of the unfortunate realities of life. When they happen, setbacks can lead to apathy and disengagement. This is true even if you are recognized for the hard work you put in. Maybe that’s why encountering setbacks can also lead to a negative view of your boss or team members. Since setbacks have such a strong impact on your mindset, it’s best to keep your focus on progress to balance it out.
If you focus on problem-solving when you have a setback and celebrate tiny victories as you work to overcome that setback, it will have less of a negative impact. Focusing on progress instead of problems takes your power back.
Celebrate Tiny Wins For Success
Studies show that small wins have a greater impact than big wins. Take winning the lottery, for example. If a person was not happy or successful before winning, they won’t be after. One big win preceded and followed by a series of losses does not equal success. But, a series of small wins that are celebrated when they happen does lead to success, even when setbacks are in the mix. This is the powerful reason that you must celebrate tiny victories to be successful.
Success is a mindset. A negative mind cannot nourish success. But if you celebrate tiny victories your mood improves, you know your worth, setbacks can’t phase you, and it can even help to lift the dark cloud of depression from overhead.
Takeaways for Managers
If you manage a team, not only can you celebrate tiny victories for your personal goals, but also help your team reach its goals. A successful team is made up of motivated members and the most motivated members are those with a positive inner work life. Your inner work life is a combination of:
- Happiness at work
- Intrinsic interest (is the team member invested?)
- View of the organization
- How management is perceived
- View of other team members
- How they feel about themselves
The best managers show team members basic respect, trust them to get the job done, consider and support the needs of the team, and manage progress, not people. They minimize negativity by making sure the team has what it needs to do the work. Instead of micro-managing every move the team makes, a good manager will focus on blame free problem-solving when a setback happens. They make a plan to overcome a setback and celebrate tiny victories along the way. By doing this, their team stays engaged and motivated and has a more positive inner work life. Good managers help their teams avoid the anti-progress cycle.
Ways to Celebrate Tiny Victories
The average person has 4 small wins a day. Make sure you are celebrating as many of yours as possible. Here are some ways you can celebrate tiny victories:
- Share your victories with a group. To help with this, I created a Facebook group for shouting out small wins. No sales pitches, no spam, just positive celebrations of tiny victories. You can join the group here.
- Put on some music and have a dance party!
- Treat yourself to dessert, like this box of Cravory Cookies.
- Do something you love. You know that thing that fills you up with joy? Yeah, do that.
- Get dressed up and go somewhere fancy.
- Spend time with your friends and toast your victory.
- Gift yourself with a token of appreciation for your hard work. I love Joycuff’s motivational bracelets and may have treated myself with one or two.
- Express gratitude when something great happens, no matter how small the great thing was.
- Write it in your journal, take pictures, blog or vlog about it, or post it on social media. The point is to record the moment in some way so you can go back and revisit your success and how good it felt when you need an extra boost.
- Take a personal day or a vacation. A period of hard work earns you a period of rest.
- Make up a victory dance or power move, like Tiger Woods and his signature upward fist thrust when he has a great drive. Or the NFL players and the end-zone victory dances that got so out of hand the league had to write rules about them.😂
- Create a chart to celebrate tiny victories, or get yourself a trophy, plaque, or another visual reward.
Now It’s Time To Celebrate!
Now that you know how to celebrate tiny victories and why it’s crucial, it’s time to get out there and start celebrating them. It would make my day if you tag @basicbfindsbalance in a post of you celebrating on Facebook or Instagram, so please do! Just like you, I need all the small wins I can get. 😆
Until Next Week,
