Have you ever heard someone say, “I’ll be so happy when I lose these 25-pounds?” Well, if you have not heard this statement, there are people out here trying to lose weight whose happiness is contingent on them losing 25-pounds.
What the person does not tell you is they have actually lost 2, 3, 4 or even 5 pounds. Yes, the weight is coming off, but they believe the time for celebration is only when they lose 25-pounds.
With anything in life, be it losing weight, making healthier dietary choices, or loving the skin you are in; you must celebrate accomplishments, no matter how small they are.
Celebrating Small Things
This inspiration for this post is from my daughter, Hannah and her wonderful Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), Ms. Linda.
I have observed some amazing stuff in Hannah’s speech therapy sessions. It is through these observations that I see, how important it is to celebrate accomplishments, no matter how small they are.
Celebrating the small things lead to bigger and greater things happening. When Hannah mispronounces a word, the SLP motivates and encourages her to pronounce the word clearly with positive reinforcements.
The SLP never focuses on what Hannah cannot do or does not do, she simply focuses on where Hannah is, while helping her go farther with her speech.
The interaction that Hannah receives from the SLP, motivates her to do what she thinks she cannot do. Ultimately, Hannah gives the SLP clear pronunciation.
We cannot celebrate the big accomplishments without first celebrating the small accomplishments. For if we only focused on that which is big, how would we ever appreciate the small things. It is the small things that truly help us do great things.
Stop Focusing on the Big Things
You got a glimpse of speech therapy with my daughter. But what you may not know is that Hannah is home educated. Yes, I teach my daughter and it is one of the toughest jobs I have ever had in my life, but it is probably the most rewarding job thus far.
When I started teaching Hannah, I had to figure out her learning style. I have had exposure to K-12 in a public and Christian educational settings in the past, but I never had direct experience with teaching a child with special learning needs.
There were many days, I wanted to give up teaching Hannah, but there was something within that would not let me give up so easily. I held on and things eventually got better.
One of the most important things I had to learn was that I had to stop focusing on my daughter doing big things. I had to also stop comparing her to other children, because no two children will ever be the same. When this finally clicked in my mind, Hannah began doing amazing things and I became a better teacher.
These days, I praise Hannah for the little things. The smile on her face is priceless when she receives praise. It is big to me, but I think it is even bigger for her.
Tying it All Together (healthy living)
We live in an instantaneous world. We expect instant weight loss success, instant dietary success, instant fitness success, and instant healing. I can go on and on about how we want things fast, but things don’t really happen fast, things actually happen slow. Fast and quick change doesn’t stick around long. It is here today and gone tomorrow. It takes time, patience and sticking with your journey for change to manifest.
If you are working on living a healthier life, you have celebrate the small accomplishments. Yes, the big accomplishments are major milestones, but if you overlook the small/little things you will not appreciate the journey.
Celebrating the small accomplishments helps you look back and see just how far you’ve come. It helps you learn and be thankful for the journey. Living a healthier life is challenging, but if you are willing to take one day at a time, get up when you fall, keep climbing up the mountain even with it gets rough, and focus on moving forward, then you will succeed.
It may not happen now and it may not happen today, but keep learning, growing, moving and celebrating your accomplishments no matter how small they are. One day you will reach your healthy living goals, just you wait and see.
Small accomplishments make a big difference too!
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Thanks for the reminder, Evelyn. I really needed to read this post. Hannah is so cute!
Hi Trinity,
Thanks for stopping by and chiming in!
Have a great week!
P.S. Thanks for complimenting Hannah!!