Celebrate Your Small Wins!

Have you noticed just how often we sell ourselves short and focus on our setbacks, failures, and all that didn’t quite go our way? What if we turned this trend around and celebrated even our smallest victories?

Even the most successful business professionals I’ve ever met admit to occasionally letting negativity, feeling of inadequacy, and the imposter syndrome creep in. Yet, they overcome all of it with so many positive affirmations in their lives that the negative seems to fade in the distance.

Here is a good formula to remember:

When you celebrate more of your successes, even the small ones, your brain produces Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role as a “reward center” in many body functions, including memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention, and more. Known as the “feel-good” hormone, dopamine is part of your body’s reward system.

This system is designed, from an evolutionary standpoint, to reward you when you’re doing the things you need to do to survive — eat, drink, and compete to survive. As humans, our brains are hard-wired to seek out behaviors that release dopamine in our reward system.

So, when you create a win at work and choose to celebrate it, that euphoric feeling nudges your brain to release a large amount of dopamine. You feel good and seek more of that feeling with the next task, key strategic initiative, or aspiration in your journey from now to next.