Who doesn’t love a big win? I’m calling you out if you say you don’t! It’s hard not to love rewards for hard work. To add some context to the discussion, when I say big win, I’m referring to:
- Landing a new client when you’ve worked long and hard on the proposal.
- Overcoming a challenge you’ve been working to get past.
- Achieving an important goal.
- Landing a new job or promotion that takes you to the next step in your career.
- Completing your first half-marathon (or, if you’re like me, you aim for 5Ks and consider those a big win!).
The list goes on, but you get the point. Most people would consider those big wins.
But do we always have to aim for such grandiose achievements? What happened to relishing in the small wins that eventually add up to a big win? Oftentimes, we fail to recognize and reward those small wins because we’re constantly fixated on something bigger and better. And believe me, I am included in all this “we” talk. I wanted to write about the importance of acknowledging small wins as often as we acknowledge the big wins because I’m not doing it enough.
Having an “always want more” attitude is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because people with that quality never settle for anything shy of great. They always push beyond the set boundaries, and they are never, ever complacent. When they accomplish goals, they barely let themselves soak up the rewards before they’re moving on to the next thing because they constantly aim to churn out great results. Employers want this type of mentality in their employees.
However, the “always want more” attitude is also a curse because great is never good enough. People with this personality trait can recognize and appreciate accomplishments, but the desire to go beyond consistently drives them to continue achieving, sometimes to the detriment of their own health and relationships. They constantly think they aren’t doing enough, even when they are going above and beyond. This can create serious mental/physical fatigue, as well as other health-related problems.
If you’ve been nodding your head in agreement as you’ve been reading this, then let’s form a pact right now. Let’s start celebrating the small wins more. We can’t save the world in one day. It’s not humanly possible. Whatever your aspirations may be, personal or professional, make a greater effort to appreciate and recognize when you achieve a small win.
Each step forward is progress toward an end goal. That end goal cannot feasibly get completed overnight. So we must practice patience (hard to do if you’re blessed/cursed with Italian blood like I am!), and we absolutely must start giving ourselves more credit when we can put a check mark next to a small win. It’s a step in the right direction.
So think about the small wins you’ve achieved lately that you quite possibly have overlooked. Think about what you’ve done at work in the past week that you may have shrugged off as a small achievement, when in reality it’s getting you one step closer to what you ultimately want to accomplish. Find happiness in each achievement, because big or small, you’re still accomplishing something (read this post about the top five regrets people make on their deathbed for more on letting yourself be happier.) Doesn’t seem like such a small win when you look at it from a new perspective, now does it?
I’m not telling you to stop going the extra mile. I certainly won’t stop. I’m simply recommending you become more aware of how the little things you accomplish truly add up to greatness. Each piece in a puzzle is small compared to the finished product, yet equally important. Remember that the next time you brush aside something because it’s not a big enough win. And I’m going to do my best to take my own advice.
One last thing – while you’re working on appreciating the small wins, stop comparing yourself to others and trying to move at their speed in order to achieve wins…big or small. Just run your own race. More on that in a future post.
What say you? Agree? Or am I placing more importance on small wins than I should?