Why You Should Be Celebrating Little Victories

What Are Little Victories?

Regardless of the stage in life you're in, I want you to take a second to look back on the past few months. Consider your personal wins and all the incredible things that you accomplished during this time. This includes things both big and small - even something you may think is "minor" or insignificant. Maybe it's a party that you stepped outside of your comfort zone to attend, the new recipe you finally decided to make, that day you let go of plans and went with the flow, those moments of body positivity, the day you ate what you wanted without restriction, the time you chose yourself over pleasing others. Anything that you're proud of. These are what I like to call little victories and they matter.

Why Are They Important?

Although we may see some wins as small, celebrating them still matters & works to build our sense of self-efficacy; the belief in our abilities and capacity to carry out our goals. There are four main sources of self-efficacy, and one source that I'll highlight is known as "mastery experiences". Mastery experiences represent previous successes that, in the future, we can look back on for motivation to achieve success again on a similar if not greater magnitude. So, the more we recognize the wins both big and small, we're increasing our mastery experiences and in turn, building self-efficacy.

P.S. If you're interested in learning more about the psychology behind self-efficacy and how to improve it, this article by Nicole Celestine, Ph.D. is a great read!