Easy MIndset Hack: Celebrate Your Wins Every Day

As entrepreneurs, our mindset determines our motivation which determines our success. Hack your mindset by celebrating your accomplishments every day

Want to watch the video instead of reading? Click here.

Do you look back at your to-do list at the end of the day and feel bad about all the things that you didn't accomplish? Or do you look at your to-do list at the end of the day and celebrate the things that you did accomplish?

Today I'm going to tell you why it’s important to celebrate your wins each and every day. Celebrating your wins is actually science-backed and is proven to help you gain confidence, satisfaction, and motivation going forward.

I recently read the book called, “The Gap and the Gain,” by Benjamin Hardy, who's a psychologist, and Strategic Coach founder, Dan Sullivan.

What are the GAP and the GAIN?

Hardy and Sullivan explain that all entrepreneurs experience self-doubt and a lack of confidence from time to time. The reality is that we, as entrepreneurs, need a lot of reinforcement in order to have confidence and not feel fear and self-doubt.

In fact, many entrepreneurs report that they are not satisfied or happy with their business progress or their own success even when they're highly successful. Dan Sullivan did some research between those entrepreneurs who and leaders who were happy and satisfied and those that weren't with a similar level of business success.

What Sullivan found is those successful entrepreneurs are more likely to report their own happiness when they focus on what they accomplished. This is also known the GAIN.

Those who were more likely to be unhappy tend to focus on all that they hadn’t yet accomplished or all that was left to do. The less happy but equally successful entrepreneurs were focused on the GAP.

He explains it with a simple chart. Entrepreneurial leaders have an ideal in their head of where they would like to be or where they would like their vision to be. The problem is that the vision is idealistic, unmeasurable and unattainable, even with our best efforts. Therefore, judging ourselves against an unmeasurable and unattainable goal is not helpful and, in fact, may be harmful.

Instead, if we notice how far we have come from the starting point, we are celebrating how far we have come and all that we have accomplished. We feel satisfied, motivated and confident.

Said differently, focusing on the GAIN breeds happiness, and focusing on the GAP brings discontent and unhappiness.

Benefits of Celebrating Your Wins

It gets us off the treadmill of working harder and harder. As entrepreneurs, there's an unlimited number of tasks to do. When we can celebrate the wins, we're more apt to give ourselves a little break and take some time for work recovery. (Check out our Work Recovery Checklist to learn more)
It also stops us from comparing and competing, even if it's with ourselves. It has been said that “comparison is the thief of joy” and we never get further by comparing ourselves to others. Celebrating your wins helps us appreciate where you are and the progress that you've made and really helps with our appreciation of everything in life.
Celebrating the wins provides an opportunity to transform every experience into a gain.
We gain the momentum of the wins behind us. Having a practice of celebrating the wins propels us forward because we're happy, we're excited. We have momentum and it builds confidence.
Finally, when you celebrate the wins, you start every day happy and you expand happiness again.

How to Celebrate the Wins

Every day you make note of at least three wins that you had, it's best to do it at the end of your workday or before you go to bed. Dan Sullivan in particular loves to do it before you go to bed because it has the potential to bring more peaceful sleep, but also prime your subconscious for having success in the coming day.

Celebrate every task throughout the day as a gain. You don’t have to contain your excitement or feeling of accomplishment to the end of the day and a list of three.

On a weekly basis as part of your weekly review, you can reflect upon and document your wins. If you do write down your wins each day, it makes a lot easier when you do your weekly review to just open up and see all the things you've accomplished for that week.

Sullivan offers a quote to keep in mind about celebrating your wins. The first is “always measure backward.” Always turn around and look at where you started and be proud of any gains that you've made. And again, this brings satisfaction, confidence, and motivation.

More Resources

I have other free resources on our website at www.peaktoprofit.com/resources. Take a look at the Work Recovery Checklist mentioned earlier, or the Win the Day checklist on morning and evening routines. Celebrating the wins is a task that you can easily fit into your nighttime routine.

Categories: Habits, Mindset, Motivation