Celebrate small wins

I hit 100 subscribers on YouTube recently, and to many people, that might not sound like a lot, but for me, it was huge.

We can often find ourselves trying to navigate a very fast-paced, results-driven world where the opportunities to stop and reflect on a small win can be bypassed by feelings of what's next. I am no stranger to that, there was a part of me that instantly shifted my focus to the next 100 and beyond, and I think that is quite a natural reaction to have, but I decided to stop myself. Because that 100 is 100 people who found something useful, or something that made them feel less alone, and that is worth sitting with for a little while.

When I allowed myself to sit with that milestone, my whole vision of what I am building shifted. So, in this post, I am going to talk about why and how I celebrate the small wins, and how you can start doing that for yourself, too.

Why We Dismiss Small Wins

The world we live in does not really encourage us to celebrate small wins; we can feel hurried along by society almost constantly. A follower or subscriber count can feel minuscule compared to someone else's. A tenth sale can feel like you are lagging behind when a competitor posts about their record-breaking month, or maybe you are a writer comparing your first draft to a published book.

The comparison that crops up in these scenarios can have a really negative impact on our relationship with our own progress, sometimes taking genuine achievement and turning it into something that feels like a consolation prize. And so, we stop celebrating, or we never really start, because nothing ever feels quite big enough to deserve it.

There is also the goalpost problem. Part of me saw 100 subscribers and immediately thought about the next 100, and if I had followed that feeling, I would not have even acknowledged the 100 I already have. Our brains are remarkably good at normalising progress, even after a long period of not seeing much at all. The thing that felt impossible six months ago becomes the new baseline almost the moment we reach it, and then we immediately raise the bar without acknowledging how far we have actually come.

And then there is hustle culture, which has somehow convinced us that celebration is complacency, and that pausing to acknowledge what you have done means you have taken your foot off the gas. Maybe you can have a moment to be grateful but quiet about it and get straight back to work.

I disagree with all of this.

Why Small Wins Actually Matter

I often see videos on my feed of people with a little cake and a candle, and when I read the caption, they are celebrating 100 followers, and every single time, those videos make me smile. Because celebrating progress is not just a nice thing to do for yourself, it is neurologically beneficial.

When we acknowledge a win, even a small one, our brains release dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with motivation and reward. Which means that celebration is not just a reward for the work, it is part of what makes continued work possible. You are not being indulgent when you stop to acknowledge progress; you are literally fuelling your own momentum for the next goal to be achieved.

I felt that surge when I saw people enjoying and finding value in my most recent video, and I think it was because I allowed myself to sit with it rather than immediately moving on. Understanding that sitting with it is not self-indulgence, it is how you keep going.

Small wins are also proof of direction; they tell you that what you are doing is working, even when the big goal still feels far away. Every small win is a data point, evidence that you are moving and that the thing you are building is real. Eventually, that evidence compounds over time in ways that are invisible for a long time until suddenly, they are not invisible anymore.

What Those 100 Subscribers Actually Represent

When I really sat with this milestone, I stopped thinking about the number and started thinking about what it actually means.

Those 100 subscribers arrived while I was learning, entirely in real time, how to make content and show up consistently for something that I genuinely believe in.

That is not a small thing dressed up as a big one; it is a big thing that deserves to be recognised as exactly what it is, proof that something real is being built, even during a challenging season.

I think that is what small wins actually are when you look at them properly, they are not just mini versions of the big win, they are evidence that you are already on your way.

Your Turn

Before you finish reading this, I want you to name something. Just one thing, however small, that you have done recently that deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated.

Because if you cannot celebrate the small wins, you will spend most of your life waiting to feel like you have arrived, only to find that when the big wins come, they do not feel as big as you expected either; the goalpost just moved again.

The truth is, you have already arrived at where you need to be right now, one small win at a time.