Every week I take a few minutes to look through my notes app.
99% of the time I’m just deleting my own pointless rambling, archiving more important information or moving notes around between categories.
But every once in a while I find something worthwhile. This happened last week as I came across the following note from December 2021:
“That feeling when you think you’ve finished your coffee, but when you pick up your cup you find just one more sip in there :)”
I think I wrote this down because of the small amount of satisfaction this little moment provided me. And at the moment, that’s all it was.
Yet upon re-reading I find a bit more meaning in it.
The experience was neither groundbreaking nor unique. Yet the fact that I took 20 seconds or so out of my day to write about the joy I experienced when I found an unexpected sip of coffee is interesting to me.
Why? Because I was celebrating a tiny win.
The benefit of celebrating small wins
The idea that you should celebrate tiny wins never made much sense to me. Why on earth would a writer celebrate every 100 words they write? Why would a basketball team trying to win a game celebrate every layup they make? Why would a student revising for an exam celebrate answering a single question correctly?
Yet despite my lack of understanding, I still took time to celebrate the tiniest moment of joy in my day: finding an extra sip of coffee in my cup, when I expected it to be empty.
I started to understand.
Sometimes when you’re working on a project the end goal can seem unreachable. This goes for almost any project: whether you’re studying for an exam, trying to win a game of basketball or hiking up a mountain.
Celebrating small wins can help you focus on the process, and at the same time make it more enjoyable.
I’m not saying you should celebrate every page you read, every point scored or every step taken up the mountain. But every once in a while it’s okay to look back at what you’ve accomplished thus far and celebrate.
Because when you celebrate the first 200 words of your article, or having read 20 pages, or walking halfway up that mountain, you make sure you enjoy the process without losing sight of the end goal.
Mark.