Life experience has taught me the benefit of focusing on small wins. I have found that it can be easier to feel good , and enjoy myself when I focus on the attainable win right in front of me. This takes the pressure off, and often sets up my mind to accomplish “bigger” things.
I find there is value in collecting the low-hanging fruit that is all around. I once worked with a workshop leader who emphasized that the all the participants acknowledge their every victory… no matter how small it might seem. One might have gotten to an appointment on time, made a call, and written a card to their mom, and he told you to acknowledge each of those as victories.
I must have taken this practice to heart. A lot of what I write about on this blog qualifies as low-hanging fruit, the kind of thing I find it easy to enjoy writing about. I’m always reaching for satisfaction. It’s the running, the reading, the writing, the thinking about things I enjoy thinking about and do with great ease.
My continual “slow and steady” theme in some of my posts further highlights this principle: instead of going for those “hard,” scary things that intimidate us and make us anxious, why not reach for the next most logical thing?
Sometimes it’s the little things that make the most difference.
Speaking of that, here is a list of some my small (or are they?) wins from this year:
- I’m close to clocking 1000 running miles for the year
- I successfully ran two half marathons
- I read a bunch of books… that I greatly enjoyed!
- I wrote a score for a play that was fully-produced. I led a band playing my music 🙂
- I had a lot of great times thinking, writing, and pondering topics that matter to me.
- I enjoyed managing my money and reading, thinking, and in some cases writing about investing.
- I helped a lot of piano and music students expand their musical abilities and experience.
- I remain happily married 🙂
- I did a lot of blogging.
- I successfully held to an intermittent fasting program.
None of these accomplishments are likely to make headlines. Yet they enrich my life. They contribute to a sense of well-being, satisfaction, and accomplishment. In fact, together, they add up to a pretty satisfying life doing things that matter to me.
And that’s big enough for me 🙂