Do You Think It’s Important to Celebrate Your Wins — Small and Large?

If you don’t give yourself credit for your small wins, you won’t notice the big ones, either.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Yesterday I hit quite a few fantastic shots in pickleball. I also missed several easy ones.

Why did my mind focus on the bungled ones?

More importantly — why didn’t I celebrate the great shots I delivered? Sure, we strive to improve our sport — whatever it may be. Learning and practicing new moves, strokes and serves are necessary for progress.

However, I’m learning that celebrating our good moves may be every bit as vital as learning how to improve our game and advance to a higher level.

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When consumed with writing an article for Medium, and suddenly you’ve lost momentum. Your mind seems to have frozen. Not a thought, idea, or even an intelligent word enters your agitated mind. What happened? To where did all the ideas disappear?

Just as abruptly as your creativity hits the deep freeze — the sun reappeared, and your mind defrosted as new concepts arose.

You proceed to write an outstanding, insightful article and the hope that it may go viral is no longer a fantasy but a real possibility. Even you can see that.

Yet you berate yourself for wasting time in the frozen brain tundra and worry that this freeze may happen again. Wouldn’t it be more productive to say “bravo”!? Not only did I write an outstanding article, but I was steadfast in my determination not to abandon the post.

We must take credit for and congratulate ourselves for all our “wins” — significant or minor.

I’m learning that the brain is not intrinsically wired to celebrate victories — either big or small. We must train our minds to take a moment to congratulate ourselves.

Why? Because when we skip that “atta girl” moment, we teach our brain to pass on the more significant wins, as well. The result — we feel less joy. And the cycle continues.

What do you do when you experience some type of “win”? How do you feel? Elated? Or do you ignore it and immediately go on to the next chore?

One of my mottos is — the reason we are on earth is not simply to learn, grow and connect with other humans — but to experience joy. Celebrating our wins leads to joy.

We must train our brains and bodies to appreciate the smaller wins we incur every day and quit taking them for granted.

I have discovered an unexpected bonus of celebrating our wins: self-confidence.

Lately, I’ve been remembering to congratulate myself for small victories, specifically in pickleball resulting in higher self-confidence and heightened skill. I’ve improved considerably by the addition of this simple yet powerful change.

I guarantee you will feel more joy, gratitude, and pride for your accomplishments. When the more monumental victory arrives, you’ll be prepared to celebrate fully.

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. "— Oprah Winfrey.