Halloween was over, and I had eaten NO candy all day.
None.
I'm pretty sure that was a first for me--at least since I've been old enough to eat candy.
No, I didn't find a cure for cancer. I didn't run a marathon or climb a mountain. I didn't even lose a pound.
Nonetheless, it was a small victory.
Small victories mark the path to bigger ones. No one loses 50 pounds in a day or becomes a bestselling author or concert pianist overnight. If you got a new job today, it's not because you had one good day, it's because you did a lot of things on a lot of days to make that achievement possible. Some of those things may have been little, but eventually they added up to a new job.
There is a subversive psychological phenomenon I've noticed when I start to celebrate a small victory--even privately. Almost as soon as it dawns on me that something good has happened, I feel the urge to downplay it. Have you had that experience? I think it's pretty common.
Maybe it comes from not wanting to show off or appear arrogant, but too often when you acknowledge an accomplishment--something positive you've done--a critical voice will pop up and attempt to invalidate that simple affirmation.
In my case, I had just realized that I made it through Halloween with no candy when I found myself thinking, "But I should have walked today, and I didn't."
It didn't stop there, either. Within 30 seconds I had a whole mental list of things I should have done, putting me back in my place and reminding me what an insignificant little drop in the bucket my "achievement" was.
Here's my theory: I suspect that critical voice prevails in so many of our internal conversations mainly because it gets so much more practice than our positive, celebratory voice. It's always easier to tear down something than it is to build, so exercise your positivity muscles by encouraging personal growth--however incremental--and celebrating every victory you can - small, medium, large, or microscopic.
Look for things to celebrate, creating them, if necessary:
- I just did two leg lifts before getting the milk out of the fridge.
- I looked both ways before I crossed the street.
- I didn't let that rude person push my buttons.
- I did 2 minutes of stretches at my desk after that stressful meeting.
- I noticed that I was satisfied while there was still food left on my plate, so I stopped eating.
- I did some slow calm deep breathing before I went back to my phone calls this afternoon.
- When I caught myself trying to eat my way out of a shame spiral, I stopped and put the cookies away.
- I drank 8 glasses of water today.
- I picked up some healthy snacks at the store this afternoon.
- I logged my food intake this morning.
Before long, you'll have even bigger victories to celebrate.
How about you? Is there a tip you could share with the rest of us, today? It doesn't have to be exciting or original, just something that has helped you and might help others. Please leave your tips in the comments below. And be sure to celebrate the fact that you shared it as one of your small victories today!
