Celebrate Your Wins

Welcome to This Daring Adventure podcast, where we work on bridging the gap between where we are and where we want to be in order to live a bigger and bolder life. In this podcast, we will provide inspiration, tips, and skills you need to make your life the adventure you want it to be. Here's your host, mindset mentor and life coach, Trista Guertin.

Hey everybody, welcome back to This Daring Adventure.

This is episode 59 and I wanted to talk a little bit about celebrating your wins.

This is something that's come up for myself especially as I look at this year and the progress that I want to make. And I started reflecting on the progress that I've made over the past few years and where I want to go this year. And I had to struggle a bit, and I don't want to say struggle, but I had to think a bit when I was trying to come up with the progress that I've made and the changes that, that I've experienced. And it makes sense, because our brain.

The brain doesn't like to acknowledge the progress that we've made. and it's quite difficult for us to see it. And this is a function of our survival brain. It likes to default to the negative. It likes to look for problems. It loves to tell us what's gone wrong, what could go wrong, what we should be afraid of. And It makes sense that this is what's happening, and this is why it's so difficult for us to see it.

So we do need to spend a little bit of time looking at what we have accomplished and where we are winning. Otherwise we tend to skip over it. We tend not to recognize it, but it's an important part of our process.

Especially when you've set big goals for yourself or you're trying to make significant changes in your life. It helps to look at where you are winning and where you are making progress in order to keep yourself going. And I'm going to outline a few reasons why that's important and give you a few ideas as to how you can actually do this in your day to day.

So the first reason is because it boosts motivation, recognizing even the smallest accomplishments. It reinforces the belief that the effort and the work that we're doing are worthwhile, and that we have experienced some success, no matter how small, and I would say you need to especially celebrate and identify and be proud of some of the smaller success and so then you can see that you are capable of continued and greater success I think for me, my journey, my transformation, the work that I'm doing, I do have goals. I've set goals along the way. I have goals as you probably have heard previously for the quarter, for the month, for the year, for the next five years, for my life, but I see it all as a marathon and not a sprint. So looking at some of the things that I can celebrate, some of the things I can be proud of is really an important part of the process. And you need to spend that time looking for that. And the more you do, the more inclined you are to keep going. It also builds confidence. And this is all part of parcel of what I've just talked about in boosting motivation.

Celebrating achievements will help to build your confidence levels and your self esteem. You start to build and you start to see that evidence. That you can do this, whatever it is for you, it starts to validate your abilities and reinforces a positive self image, which will have a ripple effect on your other areas of your life. And it will help you to maintain your progress in going after your goals.

Next, it helps to foster gratitude. By taking the time to celebrate your wins, it helps to encourage us to cultivate a sense of gratitude and appreciation for the progress that we've made. It shifts our focus. from what's lacking to what's gone right and what we've accomplished and helps to foster a more optimistic and positive outlook on what we're doing.

And this goes back to some of the work that was done by Dan Hardy and Benjamin, sorry, this goes back to some of the work in the book, the gap and the gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy in that book, they look at the concept of the gap as the space between where you are and where you want to be. And the gain as the progress that you've made towards your goals.

So it looks at focusing and highlight. So it emphasizes the importance of focusing on the progress that you've made and the growth that you've experienced rather than focusing on the gap, which can be seen as, your shortcomings. Or the amount of work you have to do to get to where you're going or comparing yourself to where you want to be or to other people.

It really does encourage a shift of mindset. From a mindset of scarcity and lack to one of abundance and progress. You're focusing on what you've achieved. You're focusing on what's going right. You're focusing on your wins. It's a book that focuses on how you do things, not on what you haven't done or how far you have to go from here, and they do provide some practical strategies and examples. If you have an opportunity to look at that book, it is quite an interesting read, and it can be quite helpful. the next is that by celebrating our wins, it helps to maintain our momentum celebrating our wins again, no matter how small.

And I would say definitely, the smaller ones are just as important. It helps us to maintain the momentum towards our larger goals. It provides a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that keeps us moving forward. It keeps us going, even during challenging times.

And as I was preparing this podcast, I put together the material and then I was delayed in recording it. But this past week, I listened to an episode that was published by Elizabeth Salazar in the brain game and she had an episode on how do I know I'm winning and she is a business coach. And she talked about some interesting ideas as they pertain to, to celebrating our wins. And she said, and she talked about how winning is a feeling and it's an experience in our bodies that feels good. It's a state, and while it can be triggered by reaching a larger, and while it can be triggered by reaching a larger goal, doing well, or receiving compliments, Even without some of those bigger wins, we can still experience that same result, right? Which is the feeling of winning, which you can create in yourself. And she says it's a mix of being excited, accomplished, proud, and eager. And all these four feelings mesh into one feeling of And it's important because when you feel like you are winning, you will show up differently. I would say, first of all, you will show up, right? You will keep going and you will show up differently. You will be feeling empowered and optimistic and positive. When you see yourself winning and when you feel that emotional state of winning, so you see it and you feel it and then it will set you up for doing it again and again.

And you can also use this process to create more progress and to create more wins because you can use it as an opportunity to review where you are, appreciate it, and then adjust. What do you do? What do you need to do more of? What do you need to do better? What can you do? What should you do less of from a place of curiosity? There's no beating yourself up. There's no sense of failure. There's no sense of less than this is an opportunity to just reflect and be curious. And from a scientific method point of view, you look at what's going and where you need to make adjustments. But it's not about making yourself feel bad. And this process is a habit that you can cultivate. And it's also a skill that you want to develop and nurture in yourself. And she speaks about taking action and she speaks about feeling like you're winning.

As an action, it's something to do, and you can actually add this to your to do list on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. And I think this is what I'm going to experiment with taking that time on a daily basis, adding it to my to do list. So it goes in with the journaling and the thought download and the yoga and the meditation. So that I am taking time each day to reflect of my wins to reflect on my wins and what I want to celebrate and what's going right. And to generate that feeling, to generate that feeling of winning in myself on a daily basis to build that momentum and to keep going.

So this is something you could try yourself, create a to do list and put this on it, reflect each day on what your success has been. I think it was. And it may have been Dr. Benjamin Hardy's book. I'll have to look it up, but there was a recommendation I saw as well that every night before you go to bed, thinking of three things that went well in your day and that you were grateful for. I think that's also a nice compliment to some of the work here. I think you can maybe alter it a little bit, just not making it generally about what went well in your day or what you appreciated in your day, but you know what you did well and what you appreciate and felt as a success and a win for yourself and listing those three things.

Or you add it to your to do list and put it as a part of your daily practice in the morning as a part of your journaling exercise, whatever you are most comfortable with and that you will actually do. But I thought it was a really interesting concept to, to adapt. And I think I'm definitely going to try it myself.

Finally, celebrating our wins helps to enhance our well being. It's acknowledging and celebrating our achievements, which contributes to an overall sense of well being and happiness. It will add a few moments of joy and fulfillment to your day, and it will reinforce the belief that you are capable of creating the change that you want and going out for the goals that you desire and creating that life that you really truly want for yourself. just as we see with. with the principle of positive reinforcement. I think the same can work for ourselves in this situation.

Positive reinforcement refers to the introduction of a desirable or pleasant stimulus after a behavior. And then the desirable stimulus reinforces the behavior, making it more likely that the behavior will reoccur. So if you want to continue taking the action that you are making the progress that you have been.

By celebrating your wins, it is a form of positive reinforcement, basically, and we know that this works We have positive parenting. We see this working with teachers. We see this working with trainers. we know that this works, dog trainers use it for a reason because it is extremely effective in encouraging the behaviors that you want to see. And I think there is an element that we can use this on ourselves. T

o reinforce the behavior and the action taking and the progress that we want to see for ourselves. And you can do this on a daily basis, taking the time to identify what your successes and what your celebrations should be about.

Or you can also, and this is what I plan to do for myself, setting a larger goal, say, For a quarter and then identifying something that I want for myself, how I'm going to celebrate.

Sometimes it might be a nice dinner.

Sometimes it might be a purchase for myself, whatever that might be that motivates you to continue taking the action, to focus on your progress and to keep going. Not only will it set a desire for you to reach that goal. But it will also then set you up for accomplishing future goals.

So those are some of the ways we can acknowledge and celebrate our wins. And it's important to do this no matter what their size. And I would say it's even more important to do some of the smaller ones, especially on a daily basis.

It's essential for your motivation, for your confidence, for your gratitude, for your momentum and for your overall wellbeing.

It really does serve as a powerful reminder of your progress and your potential. And when you're going for that big goal, when you're looking to make big changes in your life, when you're looking to create the life that you truly want, this will help you to perpetuate the enthusiasm and the determination you need to keep.

So add it to do to your to do list or add it to your journaling process, add it to your bedtime routine, thinking about what you can celebrate, what you've done that day to celebrate.

Do it on a monthly basis, a weekly basis, a daily basis.

But take the time to focus your brain on what's gone what you're doing well, why you need to celebrate what you can celebrate. In terms of your progress, your brain won't want to do it. It will be work. It's a habit that you can build. It's a skill that you can develop, but you will have to override that survival part of your brain to do that work.

It'll be worth it though. In the long run.

All right, everybody, that's what I have for you today.

Celebrate those wins. I know that you have wins that can be celebrated and it's a really worthwhile exercise. You'll see.

Have a great week.

I'll talk to you later.

Bye bye.

Thank you for listening to this daring adventure podcast with your host Trista Guertin.

We hope you enjoyed the tips and conversations on how to get excited about life again.

As always, you can head to tristaguertin.com for additional resources and to book a one on one coaching session.

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