How Small Celebrations Can Increase Your Motivation
February 28, 2022
Why is it important to celebrate small wins for motivation?
As we map out our lives, days, projects, goals, fitness, and careers —daily, monthly, and yearly — to the best of our abilities. When we try to prepare for the unexpected, something that seems to come never fails. It’s not about staying on course. It is about your journey of accomplishments, which is sometimes more important than the end goal, and it is why you should notice and celebrate the little victories enroute to the big goal to increase your motivation.
The key to progress is realizing that our big goals will not happen overnight, in the next week or maybe the following year, but it is okay. Unfortunately, we tend to focus on the big-end goals rather than the small and necessary steps we take to get us there. Celebrating small wins is critical to monitoring and tracking incremental accomplishments and achievements as it allows you to notice and pay attention to the present moment.
It’s imperative to recognize and rejoice in the small wins. Not doing so diminishes our motivation, which keeps us on the right path. The lack of motivation usually comes when we are unsure how far we are from our goals. We sometimes believe that the goal is so far away when it could be just around the corner, something we will never realize if we throw in the towel.
It’s essential to make sure you celebrate your small goals along the way. Acknowledging small wins sparks our brains and releases chemicals that give us a feeling of pride and happiness which are incredible side effects making us want to go further towards our next achievement.
Why Celebrate small goals? It makes you feel happy. Progressing in our goals makes us feel good and more satisfied with life. You don’t have to wait for “someday” to achieve your goal(s) to be happy. When there is something to look forward to, it encourages the brain to create motivation; so, let us celebrate the small victories along the way and be happy now.
You do not want to focus on the bigger picture, as tempting as this may be. Therefore, breaking big goals down into smaller ones makes them more attainable. Thus, celebrating every minor victory, you can build up your confidence to meet the challenges of the day.
Celebrating small goals give you the motivation to keep going. When you celebrate and reward yourself for the little victories, you’re reminding yourself that “I am successful… I’m on the right path” gives you the motivation while building the confidence you need to keep going.
Learning to celebrate small wins is crucial if you keep up your motivation while pursuing your goals. Therefore, don’t pressure yourself. Placing strict deadlines on your goals can lead to potential feelings of failure, even when there are small victories along the way. Instead, be flexible with your time limits.
Don’t forget to track your progress. Writing down your progress will remind you of how far you’ve come in reaching your goal. Sometimes, we give up because we are unaware of how close we are to success and forget how much we’ve accomplished.
Lastly, you may have to adjust your mindset. When we focus too much on the end goal, for example, weight loss of fifty pounds, it can seem too far away to achieve. Instead, enjoying your incremental progress of losing two or five pounds will make long-term goals feel easier to accomplish in the long run.
The Bottom Line
Celebrating small wins is critical if you want to keep up your motivation while pursuing your goal. So please find a way to celebrate. Goals are hard work, so find a way to celebrate because you deserve a treat as you work toward them.
So, here’s your task: Be on the lookout for the small victories. And when you notice a win, regardless of how insignificant, relax for a few seconds and feel it—Congratulate yourself.
You may have a long way to go . . . but look how far you’ve come!
