I know many people will tell you, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Well, I say “Celebrate the small stuff.” We all need to take the time to celebrate our daily, small victories. And by this, I don’t necessarily mean that you rescued a small child from a tree or won the Superbowl. I mean celebrate the small victories that you achieve every day and probably overlook. I tell my players that small victories are anything you feel that you accomplished. For example, a player “grooving” their shot before a game is a victory. Grooving is shooting the ball against the side of the backboard until the ball consistently bounces straight back to you. This is a small victory because you just got yourself both physically and mentally ready for the game. So when it’s time to take a shot, you are confident in knowing “your next shot is your best shot.”
And when I say celebrate these small victories, I mean it! A celebration is defined as showing pleasure due to an important occasion. So, show your giddiness about who you are and what you accomplish every day. Take yourself out for ice cream or coffee! I also recommend for everyone to keep a Victory Log. This can be a small notebook or an app where you write your small victories daily. The importance of the log is that you are writing your victories down. In my opinion, this serves two major purposes:
- It changes your thinking patterns about yourself. It is really easy to go to bed at the end of an exhausting day and say to yourself, “Wow, I did nothing today.” Keeping this log forces you to go back over your day and acknowledge all of the things you DID do, all the people you impacted, and all of the love you spread. This WILL change how you think about yourself. Your brain is a muscle, and just like you can strengthen your biceps by lifting weights, you can strengthen your brain by changing its default thought pattern. So, next time you think “Today sucked,” your brain will intuitively think about your small victories instead of spiraling down the path to the pity party.
- You can revisit this log and read it when you are having a “down day.” You know what I mean…One of those days when you are struggling to see the power and greatness within you, and want to play the victim. This is when you pull out your log and read about your small victories. This will snap you out of your pity party real quick…I promise!
Now go forth, be yourself, and celebrate the small victories in life!