Remembering to Celebrate The Small Wins
It’s so easy to skip over the small wins in life. Not the life altering ones (the birth of a healthy child, the sale of a successful business you built, kicking cancer’s ass…). No, I’m referring to the tiny wins. The ones that happen on a more day to day basis. The rain stopping before you have to head outside. Not missing your bus. Little things.
It’s especially true of the small plans we make that end up working out. The meeting you setup that goes great or the dinner party at your house you pull off without a hitch. Nothing that will change the trajectory of your life, but a small win on a small plan.
When a small plan does work out the way we hoped it would, planned it would, or expected it would, we tend to feel & think, “Well, that is what was supposed to happen because I planned for it.” Even though we were able to expect and produce an outcome favorable to us, against all the odds of failure that our chaotic universe poses, we react with nothing more than a… “Ok… What’s next?”
When a small plan doesn’t work out the way we hoped, planned, or expected, we tend to analyze every aspect of what went wrong to the tiniest detail. We dwell on it for days, running through scenarios in our head, trying to figure out what happened. We pour the sugars of anger, frustration, blame, guilt, and bitterness all over our morning cereal and munch it down. The absence of the “Ok… What’s next?” level of reaction should be obvious here, but it’s not.
Why do we take small failures so personally and not do the same with small wins?
On my desk I have a geode. I bought it specifically because it’s tiny. It serves as a constant reminder to remember that small things can contain beauty, grace, worth, value, amazement, and wonder.
I have this tiny little cave full of crystals and swirls of black and white quartz, all wrapped in a bland grey exterior that to the untrained eye looks like nothing more than a worthless rock. This beautiful little crystal took more time to create than if I lived ten thousand lifetimes. All of it, contained in this itty-bitty shell that you would hardly notice in your pocket.
It’s my little reminder that there is cause for celebration in small things. Small plans that work out. Small victories that could so easily be taken for granted. That we can’t live a life long enough to wait and only celebrate the big wins.
Next time you find yourself with a small win on your hands, take a step back and appreciate it for a moment. I think you’ll find there is more hidden joy in your life than you realized was there.
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This article was written from scratch and published the same day as part of a 31 day writing challenge. To follow me on Medium through this writing challenge, go here:https://medium.com/the-writing-challenge
