The 47th Edition
We spend so much time waiting for the “big moment” that we forget life is mostly made up of small ones.
Something to Think About
The more you practice celebrating small wins, the more your life becomes worth celebrating.
Something to Ask Yourself
When did you last allow yourself to pat yourself on the back?
Article of the Week
Explore how celebrating small wins builds momentum, boosts motivation, and rewires your brain to recognise progress. This week’s article draws on neuroscience and psychology to explain why tiny victories matter more than we think.
Track of the Week
I have no clue about this song or the Artist, but it’s a vibe.
This week’s track of the week is…
By the way, if you didn’t know, I put all these tracks in a Spotify playlist…
Personal Lesson
Early in my sales career, I developed a habit: I wouldn’t celebrate a deal until it was completely over the line. Not just verbally agreed. Not just at contract stage. In some jobs, not even once it was signed. I’d wait until the client was onboarded, the invoice was paid, and ideally they were raving about it to someone else. Anything less felt like tempting fate. A constant “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves” kind of attitude.
On the surface, this felt like professionalism. Like maturity. Like keeping my ego in check and staying focused. But over time, it became a default lens for everything. I stopped allowing myself to feel good unless all the boxes were ticked. And there were always more boxes to tick. I’d get promoted and immediately think, “Yeah but is this the job I want long-term?” I’d hit target early in the month and say, “Well, let’s see if it sticks next quarter.” Any moment of progress would instantly dissolve into the next set of conditions I had to meet before I was ‘allowed’ to be happy.
I wouldn’t stop to acknowledge how far I’d come, because I hadn’t yet arrived where I thought I should be. I have eventually come to realise life isn’t lived at the finish line, it’s lived in all the tiny steps that get you there. If you don’t learn to honour those small wins, you rob yourself of the joy that’s available now. And eventually, you train your brain to feel like nothing is ever quite enough.
Running – Life’s Metaphor
Every run has its own little victories. A hill you didn’t walk, a pace you held, a distance you once found unthinkable. If you only celebrate race day, you miss 95% of what running teaches you: to show up, to grow gradually, and to be proud of yourself without needing a medal to prove it.
Final Thoughts
We’ve been sold the lie that celebration is reserved for the highlight reel. But the real gold is in the bits nobody sees: the consistency, the hard choices, the small shifts in mindset. The 6:30am run you didn’t skip. The moment you backed yourself when self-doubt crept in.
Coaches all over the world use celebration as a performance tool. Not because it’s fluffy, but because it works. When people feel acknowledged, even by themselves, they’re more likely to keep going. Celebrating creates momentum. It reaffirms effort. It makes progress feel worthwhile, even when it’s slow. When we deny ourselves that, we cut off one of the most powerful sources of motivation we have.
You don’t need external permission to celebrate. It’s your run. Your path. Your life. Nobody else can decide what counts as a win. And when you start treating the small things like they matter, they become things that matter. That 1% improvement. That extra rep. That moment you chose presence over perfection.
So don’t wait for some big cosmic green light to feel proud of yourself. The more you learn to honour the effort, the more you’ll enjoy the journey. And trust me, if you can learn to celebrate the small wins, you’ll realise life is already full of reasons to smile.
Thanks again for reading and subscribing.
Run the runnable, and keep showing up for yourself!
Tommy 🙂
