Often it’s easy to get tunnel vision when chasing your dreams and lose sight of the small wins you achieve on a daily.
Not celebrating your small wins is adversely affecting your motivation for your goals.
If you can’t recognize when you are improving how can you celebrate when you achieve your goal?
It will feel just the same.
Acknowledging Small Wins
Your dreams are reached by succeeding daily.
Many daily successes make you successful.
That’s all there is.
You don’t wake up one day and you’ve achieved your goals.
No!
You win on some days and lose on others but you make progress.
That’s what’s most important here.
Recognizing progress.
That’s why it’s so important to celebrate your wins because without celebration you WILL get burnt out and blocked from completing your goal altogether.
Who wants that?
What are Small Wins?
Small wins are points along your journey to a goal that mark progress.
For a writer creating their novel small wins could be considered completing a challenging scene or hitting a word count goal.
They are the little things that are satisfying but are ignored in the wash of everything else you do that day.
Why Celebrate?
Celebrating key points in your journey is incredibly motivating and builds your confidence.
Nothing will motivate you more to achieve your goals than seeing the finish line get closer.
When you recognize your small wins you are forcing yourself to notice that you are even closer to achieving your dreams.
The thing is with most things in life having the thing you’ve always wanted is nowhere near as satisfying as thinking about getting it.
There was some sort of study where people’s happiness before and during a party was recorded. What they found was the happiness of the people before the party, anticipating it was significantly greater than when they were actually at the party.
Celebrating your small wins WILL motivate you like nothing else to finish your goals.
Setting Attainable Writing Milestones
The milestones you celebrate along the way to your goal need to be realistic and achievable things.
Otherwise, you have big goals inside even bigger goals which just creates these weird interwoven goals and intentions that only confuse.
You need to be aware that your goals are made up of milestones. Little places along the trail show you how far you’ve come and how far you have left on the journey.
So break down your big goals into lots of little points of importance.
For example, if you’re trying to write a novel your small wins/ milestones could be;
- Writing daily
- Word limits
- Anticipated scenes
- Finishes of chapters
and other notable things.
You don’t need to be deadly focused on them to the point of tracking their progress but rather aware of them enough to be chuffed when you hit them.
Ideas for Celebrating Milestones
There are so many ways you can celebrate your wins but here are just a few.
Reflective Journalling
After achieving a milestone be sure to capture what you thinking and feeling in the moment.
Allowing space for yourself to reflect on how you’re feeling energizes you to hit the next milestone and also provides a fascinating progression of thoughts across your goals journey to look back on.
Treat Yourself
Of course, you should indulge yourself and have a little treat.
Give yourself a little reward of some kind.
Have one of your favorite snacks or a well-deserved, leisurely break.
If you don’t reward yourself it’s hard to feel motivated for the next milestone.
Share your Success
If you share your progress with others not only will you reinforce your hard work but also those around you will get excited for the next update which will motivate you to keep progressing.
I’ve found that support from others is an extremely motivating force. When someone is waiting patiently for the next short story or part of your novel.
In Conclusion . . .
In the journey of achieving your goals, it’s easy to overlook the significance of small victories. Yet, these seemingly modest achievements are the building blocks of a successful accomplishment.
As you embark on your writing endeavors, embrace the practice of setting achievable milestones. Break down your ambitious goals into manageable tasks, savoring the satisfaction of completing each one.
Celebrate these milestones with joy, for they signify progress, growth, and the resilience of your creative spirit.
Remember, in the vast expanse of your writing expedition, every step counts.
So, dear writer, celebrate your journey, celebrate your craft, and most importantly, celebrate yourself.
Your story is unfolding, one small triumph at a time.
Happy Writing 🙂
I post an article every day about tips for writers consider following if you vibe with that. Here’s my most recent post;
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