My husband and I started our wedding social network startup 10 months ago, and since then I’ve learned a lot that helps me stay grounded and focused.
One of those things is this: If you don’t celebrate the small wins, you won’t have the motivation to go after the big ones. This week I thought about what it means to celebrate each and every win.
Here are my wins from this week:
- Launching my new site. Woo hoo!
- Becoming sponsors of this years New Orleans Pride Parade
- Fixing some site related bugs that were really bumming us out.
Did we win a pitch competition? No! Did we get a phat check from some investor who knows just how fabulous our team and our ideas are? No! Did we have 10,000 new followers on Twitter? No!
But, the truth is, we still won. And, most importantly, we knew we did.
We celebrated by going to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch instead of dinner. The sun was out, the view was wonderful and the price was right. I’ll admit, when you’re starting up fancy lunches tend to be cheaper than fancy dinners. That’s our way of toasting to our successes without breaking the bank.
Celebrating the small wins matters.
Celebrating small wins makes you give yourself props
It’s great when your colleagues notice what you’ve done, but when like us, you’re a company of 2, raising your glass is one of the only ways to show your support for each other. Plus, who’ll toot your horn if you don’t.
Acknowledging what you’ve accomplished helps you stop focusing on what you didn’t achieve and start looking at how amazing you really are. You’re also acknowledging that despite the challenges, you didn’t give up. That’s huge! That’s major! So raise a glass to that!
Celebrating small wins gives you the stamina to go after big wins
It’s the truth! I’ll admit that I’m one of those people who will find a good reason to put on some lipstick and get festive, but I’ll also admit that raising a glass to accomplishing something on your list of world domination gives you the stamina to accomplish bigger things.
Has your startup got you down? It’s time to celebrate the small wins to get to the big ones!
If you just move on and forget to give yourself props, you’ll be running on fumes. Let’s admit that sometimes that major accomplishment (reaching 1 million users) doesn’t come for a long while.
Celebrating small wins makes you more confident
When you’ve seen yourself win, regardless of the size of the win, you’re more able to believe you can win again, and again.
Celebrating small wins makes you grateful
Accepting the idea that being grateful makes more great things come into your life may not be for everyone, but for me this works. While you don’t have to make a list of all the things you’re thankful for, taking a moment to celebrate the small accomplishments honors that fact that you know how far you’ve come and are appreciative of that milestone.
For me, this week was about raising my glass to the small wins!
What are your small wins this week and how did you celebrate? Hit me up in the comments and let me know your thoughts!