If you are working on a big goal that takes months or years to achieve, then it’s easy to lose motivation and give up before you reach your dream. So, here is a simple technique to avoid that: You can break your big goal into smaller ones so that you can achieve small wins and that will enhance your motivation.
Thus, In this blog, I will talk about small wins, their benefits, and how can you use them.
WHAT’S IN IT
What are Small Wins?
Small wins are small goals that you achieve while moving towards your goal, or it can even be a little progress during a day towards your goal.
For example, you have a goal of starting a business and achieve sales of 1lakh by this year. So, you break down into small goals of making a website by the end of this month, then get my first customer by this date, getting Rs50K sales by this date etc and then finally reaching your main goal.
These wins make the goal to achieve much more comfortable as you get motivated, energetic every time you accomplish a goal you set for that particular day, week, and month.
Why Small Wins matter?
A great life is not built by revolution; a great life is built by evolution. Small and steady wins the race. You must have heard of these lines before. These lines also tell us the importance of celebrating small wins.
Now, I will tell you some of the reasons that tell us why small wins are important that you must look into.
- They will keep us motivated throughout our journey towards our goal
If you have a big goal, it might appear like a mountain to you, which may seem difficult to climb or achieve. So, when you break that goal into smaller ones like first climbing 50 meters of that mountain. These smaller goals will appear to be much easier and achievable.
Also, you will get motivated, and you will start getting more confidence in you for achieving your bigger goal when you achieve that smaller goal.
- Helps you break complex goals into smaller goals
Sometimes the goals you want to achieve are complex and look hard to meet with a very dangerous path. But, when you break it into smaller ones, the path will become simpler and ultimately will help you to travel this perilous path with ease.
Research on Small wins
The Harvard researchers conducted research where they studied 238 managers from twenty-six project teams which were in turn from seven different countries. At the end of the day, the managers were asked to write in a journal about the quality of the day. Also, the researchers studied 12,000 of these journal entries.
The researchers found that the days which the managers called their best days, on these days managers have made some kind of incremental progress.
In their journals, they said we were dealing with a computer bug, and we made a small win towards the vision of the organisation. Or they were dealing with a difficult customer, but we made some progress in building the relationship.
And the days the managers recorded worst days, it was because there was some kind of a setback during their days.
This, I believe, is a very powerful insight. If you want to stay motivated, develop a truly focussed mindset, feel emotionally alive, feel inspired, drive higher levels of drive and stay on your best game then you need to celebrate small wins at the end of every single day.
Also, the days on which these managers receive appreciation or encouragement from their colleagues, they consider as their best day. On that day, they were very happy and motivated.
How to use small wins to enhance motivation?
I have discussed below some of the ways that you can use, to use small wins to enhance your motivation, performance etc.
The Nightly 3 Ritual
At the end of your day, think about three great things that happen to you during the day. Also, write that down on the piece of paper for better results.
Let me tell you the reason for doing so. According to science, our brains are hard-wired for negativity; we have negativity bias in mind. So, our brains focus on what’s negative in our environment.
Thus, we focus more on what went wrong during the day versus all the progress and the things that went right. So, writing out the good things that happened to us during the day will release dopamine in your brain so that you feel better, feel more energetic.
Keep a daily progress Journal
Journaling increases awareness, deepens your intentions, boosts performance. So, write about your progress, where you are winning.
Doing this will help you to train your brain to focus on progress, to focus on where you are winning, to focus on what’s positive. Thus, according to science, that will fuel you emotionally, it will make you feel stronger, grow your confidence and will take your productivity to the next level.
Create a culture of appreciation and encouragement
As the above Harvard study also shows that a person feels more motivated when he/she gets appreciated by their colleagues. So, make culture in your organisation for appreciating each other when your team or organisation achieves a smaller goal you have set.
Also, they will be highly motivated to achieve the next goal and ultimately will increase the chances to reach that ultimate big goal set by your organisation.
Focus on the present moment
People have the habit of getting stressed about the future, whether they would achieve their goal or not. The fact is that when you will reach that goal, you will have another goal, and you will start to get the stress of achieving that, this cycle will go on until you die.
Also, taking stress will be of no help in achieving your goal. This will only waste your time, energy and your productivity will decrease.
So, instead of focussing on the future more, try to live the present, that moment where you are now. Enjoy the moment- these small wins, your life will become much better, and you will achieve your goals much better.
Conclusion
To sum up, I will now conclude what we have learnt all in this blog. First, I talked about What are small wins? These are the smaller goals that you break from a big goal.
Second, I talked about Why these small wins are important? They help you stay motivated throughout your journey of achieving a big goal. Also, you can break your complex goals into smaller ones that will make the path to your goal simpler.
Third, I told you about research by Harvard, where they studied 12,000 journal entries of 238 managers from seven different companies. In this research, they found that these managers describe those days as good when they make small progress and when they have a setback, they described those days as bad.
Finally, I told you about How you can use small wins to enhance motivation? Here, I told you to start writing 3 good things that happen to you during the day. Also, I told you to start writing a progress journal for your goals. These habits will help your brain to focus more on positive things than negative which will ultimately increase your motivation levels.
Also You can Read our Blog on How To Be An Effective Coach And Mentor?