Success: The Sum of Small Efforts
Do you ever feel like you’ve gotten through your day and you feel like you haven’t achieved anything? Yup, I get it. Sometimes we’re so busy doing all the things, we don’t really know what we’ve done at the end of the day.
We’re so caught up in being busy, at times, we don’t often stand back and ask ourselves, is this serving me and have I achieved what I wanted to achieve today? It’s easy to do.
Society celebrates us being busy – it’s all about the hustle, working a full time job whilst studying full time, spending our waking moment filling it with things – brunch with friends, nights out, whatever it might be. And so you’re struggling, you’re struggling to feel like you’ve achieved anything and you feel like you’re stuck.
Here are some tips for how I ensure I feel like I’ve achieved something with my day:
Celebrate the small wins every day. It could be as simple as making your bed, meditating for 5 mins, or doing the grocery shopping. What are three things you did today which you said you were going to do? Write them down, celebrate them. You can use a journal which you write in every night, or if you’re open to sharing it with the world, posting it on social media at the end of the day. Find a way to document it which works for you.
Do one thing every morning as part of your morning routine. What is the one thing you know you need to feel like you’ve achieved something with your day? It might be daily gratitude or going to the gym, for example. Ask yourself, what that one thing is and make it a habit – every day.
Ask yourself, what does success look like for me? If you can get clear on what a ‘good’ day looks like in terms of achievement then it can help with FEELING like you’ve achieved something. Remember, your version of success doesn’t need to look like what everyone else is doing. What do YOU want to achieve, realistically, with what commitments you have and knowing what you can do to look after you and put yourself first at the same time.
Write your to-do list and minimize, delegate or eliminate some things. If it stays on your list for more than two weeks, get rid of it all together. Ask yourself is this urgent, important or significant and learn to prioritize accordingly. We don’t want to spend our time focusing on what’s urgent all the time sometimes what’s best in terms of growth and achievement is focusing on what’s significant. Better yet, eliminate some things so you can invest your time in what really matters. Can you cancel or post-pone plans?
Create celebration time. What do you do when you do achieve something incredible? Do you shrug it off? Or do you take yourself to go and get a manicure, a nice cup of coffee, a bath? If you create time for celebration you’re more likely to remember what you’ve achieved, and I’m sure it’s a lot more than what you realize. Set some mini-goals and reward yourself.
Remember what you choose to focus on is 100% in your control – which is pretty cool when you think about it. So focus on what you have done and celebrate the small wins. Success is the sum of the small efforts repeated day in and day out.
- R