By Jill
How to Celebrate Small Wins and Why This is Important (10 Small Wins to Celebrate)
Celebrating daily wins helps build momentum and motivation towards larger goals.
7 Ways We Celebrate Our Small Wins:
1. My favorite is, at the end of the day, make a list of any tasks you accomplished. Sometimes I celebrated the smallest of tasks because I was struggling to feel well and get things done. This included: “Getting dressed, eating, feeding my pets, writing, scheduling an appointment” as examples.
2. You can use an app where you create small goals and check them off as the day progresses or at the end of the day.
3. You can reward yourself with something small like a 5 minute break, going outside for some fresh air, or a short, reward of your choice.
4. Use a journal, list or spreadsheet
5. Share with your family, friends, or colleagues. I prefer not to do this since I think it is important to celebrate tiny wins for awhile to build momentum towards larger tasks and gaining motivation.
6. Track wins on a calendar. Compare progress over time.
7. Make large goals and small goals as steps and celebrate every small goal as you accomplish it. You can assign an award ahead of time.
6 Benefits of Celebrating Small Wins:
1. Increases motivation by releasing dopamine, the brain’s pleasure and motivation neuro-transmitter leading you to take more future actions due to the brain creating a “positive feedback” loop (SNHU). Celebrating the win creates a small reward in your brain and helps create positive emotions or thoughts.
2. According to the book, “The Gap and the Gain,” when you acknowlege even tiny gains, you reinforce your identiy as someone who is growing.
3. Seeing progress instead of lack. The “Gap and the Gain” by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy book also emphasizes how celebrating small wins trains your brain to see progress instead of lack.
Focusing on gains encourages your progress.
4. Celebrating a small win every day can help build a new habit. For example, listing “today I… ‘flossed my teeth’ and listing it every day when you accomplish the task can help build a new habit because you acknowledged the task and tracked it. Studies show we have more success in habit building when we track a habit and measure it.
5. Celebrating small wins, even tiny wins is good for your mental health. You do not need to do huge things in order to feel good about yourself. Celebrating small wins helps you form self-compassion and see how every day makes a difference in your life. Every small habit can add up over time to help you.
6. Builds self-esteem and resilience. Acknowledging progress, especially during a time of setbacks, shifts the focus from “what is lacking, to what is working” (Centered Focused Therapy) leading to the development of a more positive mindset.
10 Small Wins to Celebrate:
1. Planning a meal or eating a healthy meal.
2. Daily, specific exercises. The more specific, the better for developing new habits and for getting something done vs. just writing “exercise today” and then end of the day writing “exercise,” instead, make it specific and say: “Today I ran ____ miles.”
3. Getting out the door or time in nature.
4. Getting dressed or any hygiene goals can count as a small win.
5. Saying hi or a social interaction.
6. Reading x amount of pages or an article.
7. Answering ____number of emails or any small work goal you create.
8. Small, meaningful goals you can make towards improving your relationships like spending x amount of minutes with your spouse or children or daily efforts at conversation with them.
9. If you successfully held back from doing a bad habit.
10. Quiet time: time for mindfulness, thought, and journaling.
Sources: Harvard Summer School: “Why Celebrating Small Wins Matters,”
Centered Focused Therapy: “Small Wins, Big Impact: How Celebrating Small Wins Can Boost Mental Well-Being,”
Southern New Hampshire University: “How Celebrating Small Wins Can Make a Big Difference,” https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/community/celebrating-small-wins
