Celebrate small victories

Celebration is one of the key parts of life that lead to having met personal needs. To celebrate, to feel joy or emotion towards a specific instance, creates a level of specialness in that instance. When your child learns to walk, you celebrate it and you talk about it often. When you graduate from high school, college, university, there’s normally a pretty big celebration!

So what about small victories? What about your first successful week of eating healthy, or your first earning through a new medium?

I experienced this today. I began writing for Helium in January of 2011, and am working towards adding to my published material weekly. I earned my first amount there, 0.01$ as of this afternoon of February 15, 2011. It may not seem like much, but it is a start. It is a beginning, and I am excited.

It opens the door to my mind to realize, accept, and encompass that I can actually make money through this medium. It may not be much, but it is something. It is validating. It is empowering. It fills the body and soul with a power of knowing that the work I put into this medium pays off.

Any small success, no matter how small, impacts everything around you. By celebrating it, you pull it out of the shadows and bring it into the limelight for all to see. You show that you are proud of something that you have accomplished, no matter how small. You should be proud because accomplishments are accomplishments, regardless of their size. Impact is not affected by how big of an accomplishment is, but by how big the follow through is on that accomplishment.

If I looked at this 0.01$ that I earned through this medium and said “oh, geez, wow, a whole penny, whoopee” then I would be downplaying, and even insulting, my ability to write and earn through Helium. This could lead to frustration, and giving up, because I would be setting my expectations too high for this time in the game.

Instead, I celebrate, and I cheer for myself. Because I know that I can, and I know I will keep doing better. Small victories lead to bigger victories. Celebrate the baby steps, and the tiptoeing because that is what will lead you to feel more capable of taking on bigger steps.

Don’t let small successes laugh at you because they’re small. Laugh at them, because they will lead you to larger successes and better self-confidence. When you accept and celebrate your small victories, you are accepting that you have done something right. You did good, you’ve done well, you succeeded. Then you are more able to look forward and make more changes and achieve more victories.

So what small victory have you achieved today?