Celebrate Your Tiny Wins

​I am a child of the '80s, and I have a vivid memory from about 3rd grade that I associate with the idea of celebration. It was Back-to-School night, and my PE teacher, Coach Judy, had all the students on the gym floor showcasing our PE skills. I was in a line with three other kids, and we were dribbling basketballs to the beat of Kool & The Gang's "Celebrate." I remember standing there, awkwardly bouncing that basketball, hoping to impress my parents with my skills. Every time I hear the song "Celebrate," I think of that performance, and it brings a smile to my face.

I can still visualize the gym at Chesterfield Day School in St. Louis, Missouri, so clearly. It had colorful, life-size silhouettes of children painted on the walls, depicting kids walking, jumping, and running in a hive of joyful activity. One wall had a yellow silhouette of a jumping girl with a swinging ponytail. She was about my size, and I loved to imagine that it was me painted there.
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When we were children, we didn’t have to be told to celebrate; children often just have a joyful, celebratory attitude. But as I coach, I often have to encourage my clients to celebrate their wins--and they often resist.

For the past year, I have been joyfully and deeply involved in the Positive Intelligence program created by Shirzad Chamine. In the Positive Intelligence (PQ) framework, one of the most powerful tools for building mental fitness is learning to celebrate tiny wins. It might sound simple—even insignificant—but this small practice has a big impact.

Our brains are wired to focus on threats and problems; that’s how we’ve survived. But to thrive, we need to retrain our minds to notice what’s going right. Celebrating small victories like cleaning out the sock drawer, going through your mail, or making that mammogram appointment creates positive neural pathways. These tiny moments of success are like reps at the mental gym.
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When we acknowledge and savor even the smallest progress, we reinforce our capacity to grow and change. We are often so hard on ourselves, focusing on what we are not doing. Today, let’s take a few minutes to celebrate all that we ARE doing and bring some spontaneous joy and celebration into our day.

If you like this post, then you may like Your Wild and Precious Life.

See you soon.