Most of us want success and big wins as soon as we start doing the right things, but this is not realistic and can often lead to us being frustrated and and feeling let down.
Often we can lose motivation because we feel like we aren't making any progress or that a goal is too far away.
The way to combat all of this and the way to achieve goals and stay happy and motivated while doing so, is to focus and celebrate all of your small wins along the way.
As an example; I've been wanting to start swimming for a while now. I used to swim as a kid, but that was mainly just playing about in the pool with friends and I've never done it since, so it's been many, many years.
So because of that, I had been quite anxious about going to my local pool and trying it and kept putting it off? Which stroke do I try as a beginner? What if the pool is busy and I can't swim anymore? What if everyone stares at me while I just flap around like an idiot trying not to drown?
After a few months of putting it off, despite purposely joining a gym with a pool, I eventually told myself that I just had to stop overthinking it and jump into the pool. I'd been so keen to get into swimming, yet months later I still hadn't tried it once. It was time to finally take some action.
Long story short (watch the video for all the details), I got into the pool, set off on my first length and immediately began to sink to the bottom, very quickly realising that swimming is apparently not like riding a bicycle.
Eventually I decided rather than immediately getting out the pool and leaving, since the pool is shallow enough, I would just walk lengths of the pool instead since this would at least be some exercise and definitely better than nothing.
I did that long enough that I slowly built up my confidence and slowly was able to start swimming part of the lengths, eventually building up to being able to swim a whole entire length of the small pool! I know right!
The point I want to make however, is that in the past, I would have came away from the gym, feeling like a failure, beating myself up about the fact that I couldn't even swim anymore and had to spend most of the time walking in the pool when people over twice my age were leisurely swimming length after length after length.
I did not do that however. That is no longer the way my mind works. Instead I celebrated the fact that I had finally made it to the gym and gave it a go. I congratulated myself on not giving up and leaving when I first tried and sunk like a stone. I praised myself for not caring about what other people in the pool might think watching me struggle to swim just one length and so I left the gym feeling great, feeling more confident, like I'd actually achieved something and felt motivated to try it again and improve at it.
And that is the difference celebrating each of your wins, no matter how small makes.
Rather than beating yourself up, focusing on what went wrong or comparing yourself to others, losing motivation to keep going in the process. Celebrating the small victories has the opposite effect. You grow in confidence and self esteem. You build on those victories and gain momentum and that in turn builds your motivation to keep going.
If you're looking for wins you're going get them.
Focus on all the little wins in your day to day and build a winning streak.