The Small Wins You’re Not Noticing
When was the last time you gave yourself credit for something that went right? Not something huge. I’m not talking about finishing a major project, reaching a big goal, getting a promotion, losing 20 pounds, paying off a loan, or finally organizing your entire house.
I’m talking about something small.
Maybe you drank more water yesterday. You went for a 10-minute walk when you didn’t really feel like it. You finally made the appointment you’d been putting off. You put something away instead of leaving it on the counter. You stopped yourself from buying something you didn’t need. You texted someone you’ve been meaning to check on.
Chances are, you didn’t think much about it. You just moved on to the next thing. I think we do that a lot.
We’re surprisingly good at noticing everything we haven’t done yet and surprisingly bad at noticing the little things we are doing.
And that means we may be making much more progress than we realize.
We Have a Very High Bar for What Counts as Progress
There’s something strange about the way we measure improvement. If we decide we want to exercise more, a 45-minute workout counts. Walking for 10 minutes? That might not.
If we want to organize the house, an immaculate room counts. On the other hand, cleaning out one drawer? That barely seems worth mentioning.
If we’re trying to save money, putting hundreds of dollars into savings feels meaningful. But skipping a $7 purchase we didn’t really want? We probably forget about it five minutes later.
We tend to count progress once it’s big enough to impress us. But that’s not usually how change happens. Most of the things we eventually become proud of are built from actions that didn’t feel particularly important while we were doing them.
Small Wins Have a Visibility Problem
Big accomplishments are easy to see. They have finish lines. You complete the race. Pay off the credit card. Finish the project. Reach the number. Clean the room.
Small wins are much easier to miss because they often happen in the middle of ordinary life.
You chose water instead of soda. You spent five minutes dealing with the pile of mail. You went to bed 20 minutes earlier. You transferred $10 into savings. You took a breath before responding when you were annoyed.
Nothing dramatic happened afterward. There was no confetti. No one cheered for you. The day simply continued.
But something being easy to overlook doesn’t make it meaningless.
We Notice What’s Left More Than What’s Done
Imagine you have ten things on your to-do list and you finish seven of them. What are you thinking about at the end of the day? There’s a pretty good chance it’s the three things you didn’t finish.
I’ve certainly done that.
Instead of thinking, I got seven things done today, it’s incredibly easy to think, Ugh. I still didn’t get those three things done.
The unfinished things have a way of demanding our attention. And when we’re constantly looking at what’s left, we can start feeling as though we’re not making progress even while we’re actively making it.
The same thing happens with bigger goals.
If you want to save $1,000 and you’ve saved $200, it’s easy to focus on the $800 you don’t have yet. But there’s another completely accurate way to look at the exact same situation:
You have $200 more than you had when you started.
Both things are true. Only one of them helps you see the progress you’ve already made.
We Move the Finish Line Without Realizing It
There’s another reason small wins disappear. Something that once felt difficult eventually becomes normal.
Maybe six months ago you struggled to remember to drink water. Now you automatically carry a water bottle everywhere. Maybe getting out for one walk a week used to be an accomplishment. Now you regularly walk three times. Maybe you used to order takeout four nights a week and now it’s usually one or two.
Once the new behavior becomes part of normal life, we stop seeing it as progress.
We think: Well, that’s just what I do now.
Exactly. Something that once required effort became something you just do. That’s not evidence that it wasn’t a big deal.
That’s evidence that it worked.
I have a perfect example of this in my own life. I keep my Skechers Slip-ins next to my treadmill, and one day it occurred to me that since my sneakers were already on when I finished walking, that would be the perfect time to do my wall sits.
I’d been trying for months to get myself to do them consistently. Now, once each weekday, I get off the treadmill and do my wall sits before I take my sneakers off.
It’s such a small thing that it would be easy not to count it as progress. But something I’d been trying to get myself to do for months has become so automatic that I barely think about it anymore. It’s just something I do now.
And that’s exactly the kind of progress that’s so easy to stop noticing.
Partial Progress Still Changes Where You Are
I think we’re especially bad at giving ourselves credit when we don’t finish something. If the kitchen isn’t completely clean, we barely notice that we cleared the counters. If we didn’t finish the book, the 40 pages we read somehow don’t count. If we planned to exercise five days and managed three, our attention immediately goes to the two workouts we missed.
But doing part of something usually leaves you somewhere different than doing none of it. Three workouts aren’t five. They’re also not zero. Clearing one counter isn’t cleaning the kitchen. But tomorrow morning, you still wake up to one clear counter. Saving $25 isn’t reaching your financial goal. But you still have $25 you didn’t have before.
We don’t need to pretend partial progress is the same as completing the goal. We just need to stop pretending it doesn’t count at all.
Meal planning is a perfect example of this for me. I’ve wanted to plan an entire week’s worth of dinners for years. I almost never manage to do it. Even when I deliberately set aside the time, I often can’t come up with enough meals I want to make.
So eventually, I stopped making a full week the requirement.
Now I plan three meals each week. I don’t even assign them to particular nights. I just make sure I know what those three meals are and have everything I need to make them.
Is three meals the entire week? No. But those three planned meals make three evenings considerably easier. And more importantly, three is something I can actually do consistently.
I could keep focusing on the meals I didn’t plan. Or I can recognize that planning three is progress…and that small win genuinely helps me every week.
Some of the Best Wins Are Almost Boring
I think one reason we overlook small wins is that many of them aren’t particularly exciting. In fact, the best ones can become downright boring.
You remember to take something with you because you started leaving it by the door. You don’t have to frantically search for your keys anymore because they finally have a place. You drink more water because your bottle sits on your desk. You have something to make for dinner because you planned three meals before you went grocery shopping.
Nothing heroic happened. Life just worked a little better. And after a while, you may forget that it didn’t always work that way. I think those are some of the wins most worth noticing.
Because the goal isn’t to spend our lives constantly exerting effort so we can feel proud of ourselves. Sometimes the goal is to make something work so well that we barely have to think about it anymore.
Noticing Small Wins Isn’t About Lowering Your Standards
I can imagine someone reading this and thinking: Okay, but am I really supposed to congratulate myself every time I drink a glass of water? No. I’m not suggesting that we throw ourselves a party every time we put our shoes away. This isn’t about pretending tiny actions are enormous accomplishments.
It’s about having an accurate picture of what’s happening.
If you only pay attention to what went wrong, what you haven’t finished, and how far you still have to go, you’re missing part of the evidence. You also did things. You changed things. You handled things differently than you might have six months ago. You made choices that Future You will benefit from.
Those things belong in the picture too.
Progress Is Easier to See When You Look Backward
When we’re working toward something, we naturally look ahead. How much farther do I have to go? What’s next? What still needs to change?
Sometimes it helps to turn around.
Instead of comparing yourself only to where you want to be, compare today with where you started. What is easier now? What do you do automatically that used to require effort? What problem comes up less often? What have you gotten slightly better at? What choice are you making more often than you used to?
Those questions can reveal progress that is almost invisible when you’re only staring at the finish line.
Small Wins Give You Useful Information
There’s another reason I think small wins deserve our attention.
They’re data.
If something worked (even a little) that tells you something.
Maybe putting your sneakers next to your desk really did make you more likely to walk. Maybe keeping your reusable bags by the door helped you remember to bring them with you. Maybe doing something for five minutes was enough to get you started.
When we notice what worked, we can ask: Why did that work?
Then we can use what we learn somewhere else. That’s much more useful than simply telling ourselves to try harder next time.
You Don’t Have to Wait for the Finish Line
There will always be another thing to work on. Another habit you could improve. Another room you could organize. Another financial goal. Another way you could take better care of yourself or the people you love.
If we only allow ourselves to notice progress once everything is finished, we’re going to spend an awful lot of our lives feeling behind.
I’d rather notice what’s happening along the way. Not because everything is perfect. Not because the small win means there’s nothing left to improve. But because progress deserves to be counted while it’s happening.
So before you decide what needs fixing next, take a minute to look at what you’ve already done.
What progress are you overlooking?
The answer may be much bigger than you think.
Try This: Find Three Small Wins
Take a minute and think about the last few days.
Find three things that went a little better because of something you did.
They don’t have to be impressive enough to tell anyone else about.
Maybe you made a choice that helped Future You. Maybe you did something you’ve been putting off. Maybe you handled a familiar situation a little differently. Maybe something that used to be difficult is starting to feel normal.
Write down all three. Then choose one and ask: What helped that work?
That’s the part I don’t want you to skip. Because noticing a small win isn’t only about feeling good about what you’ve done. It’s also a chance to learn something about what works for you…and do more of it.
I keep my Skecher’s Slip-ins sneakers next to my treadmill. One day it hit me that I can do my wall sits right after I get off the treadmill, since my sneakers are already on. Now, once a weekday, I do wall sits after I’m done with the treadmill. It’s the smallest thing, but I’d been trying for months to get myself to do them, and now it’s so obvious that this is when I should be doing them, that I don’t have to think about it. It’s something I do now.
Another example of something I do that is a small win but doesn’t solve the whole problem is the meal planning, or lack of it. The example above isn’t by accident. I’ve wanted to meal plan my week for years. I’m almost never able to do it. Even when I set the time aside, I can’t come up with a week’s worth of ideas at that time. So I finally decided I’d plan out 3 meals each week. That I can do. It’s a small win, but it really helps me each week!
Want Another Small Win?
If you’re starting to notice that progress doesn’t have to be huge to count, why not create one more small win?
I created the 5-Minute Life Reset Kit to help you make life feel a little easier without trying to overhaul everything at once.
Inside, you’ll find five simple Life Upgrades you can try, a 7-Day Small Wins Reset, and a Tiny Reset Planner to help you choose something small and actually put it into action.
It’s free, and you can start with just five minutes.