Following is a chapter from Walk Your Way to Better: 99 Walks That Will Change Your Life by Joyce Shulman. Click here to grab your copy!
Yesterday, I solved a major hurdle in bringing our new business to life. It has been months of struggle. I’ve had dozens of calls, spent hours researching, asked hundreds of questions and have gotten hundreds of different answers. Yesterday, I found a solution.
I should have felt fantastic. I should have taken the afternoon off or, at the very least, taken a long walk in one of my favorite places. But I didn’t. Instead, I checked it off my list and asked myself “what’s next?”
Most of us launch from one task to the next, barely stopping to acknowledge the big value of the little wins along the way. This failure to celebrate our small successes is self-defeating.
In 2007, researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer conducted a study in which they analyzed nearly 12,000 diary entries made by 238 workers to uncover what it is that inspires people to be more creative and productive at work. As reported in the Harvard Business Review, the results were surprising. The most important motivator wasn’t the pressure to perform or fear of failure. It wasn’t a great work environment, incentives, recognition, benefits, or management support. Instead, what proved to be the single most important factor fueling motivation and momentum was whether or not people felt like they were “making progress in meaningful work.” The more frequently people experienced that sense of progress, the better they performed in the long run. They dubbed it the “progress principle.” The lesson is clear: in order to stay motivated, we need to recognize and celebrate momentum. The small steps. The little wins.
We don’t do this enough. Too often, we are so focused on our larger goals that the small milestones feel inconsequential and not worthy of celebration. But they are. If our goals are big, the journey to achieving them will be long. If we focus only on what is left to do without savoring what we have accomplished, we rob ourselves of much of the fun along the way, and our most powerful motivator.
So why don’t we? First, we are all so busy, and as soon as we’ve finished meeting one challenge, we are onto the next. Who has time to stop and celebrate?
Second, we think celebrating tiny wins is silly. If my goal is to write a book and I have tens of thousands of words to go, isn’t it silly to jump up and down and celebrate a measly 1,000?
Third, we are afraid that stopping to celebrate the little wins will make us take our foot off the gas. If you want to run a marathon, will celebrating one mile make us feel like that is good enough?
Nope. The evidence shows that celebrating the small steps creates a success loop where one success leads to another and another. And besides, celebrating is fun. It feels good. And we deserve every good feeling and every moment of joy that we can grab.
This month, think about all of the small wins you can celebrate. Cue the confetti. Blow the party horn. Dance and rejoice. For the one-mile walk you took even when you didn’t feel like it. For getting through a full day without a chocolate chip cookie, yelling at your kids, or spending more than 30 minutes scrolling social media. For being kind to yourself.
This month, let’s Cue the Confetti!
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