Hi, I’m Jenny. And I love to celebrate every single small achievement. I’m big on celebrating the small stuff as well as the big stuff, being a firm believer in that the celebrating the smaller things are what pave the wave gently for us to reach our big goals and dreams. Without those small steps, we wouldn’t get anywhere. So why wouldn’t we celebrate them? In this post, we’re going to look at how to celebrate small achievements in a healthy way!
I’m always shouting about how you should be your own biggest cheerleader and it’s something I’ve worked on incorporating heavily into my own life over the last few years.
In particular with my past anxiety disorder because when that was at it’s worst, the small steps were all I could think about. At a time when I was too scared to leave my bedroom, thinking about going into a shop or getting on a train was enough to send me spiraling.
So that’s where those beautiful small steps came in. I remember working heavily on them with my counsellor, who would always encourage me to set small and achievable goals each week. I don’t know where I would be without her.
But of course, these small achievements could be absolutely anything. A fitness goal. A financial achievement. A work-related win. Absolutely anything can and should be celebrated if appropriate. Yes, even the small things that might seem insignificant to everyone else.
Like, can you imagine many people celebrating the fact that one day I finally managed to go into Tesco? No. Did I celebrate anyway and feel AMAZING about it for the rest of the day? Heck yes.
So today I’m going to share 10 suggestions of how to celebrate small achievements in your life. There’s nothing too extravagant here – just wholesome ways to acknowledge and celebrate your progress.
10 healthy ways to celebrate small achievements:
Shout about it on social media
Social media can be a wonderful place when you’ve achieved something good. It can be full of love and support and well-wishes, so if social media is your thing, shout about it! You never know WHO you might inspire by sharing your win!
Treat yourself to something nice
I do this a lot and I think it’s a lovely way to acknowledge what you’ve achieved – regardless of how small. If you’re stuck on what to treat yourself to, here is a list of 62 ideas of things to treat yourself to!
Have a pamper evening
You can’t beat a pamper evening. And some achievements will definitely take it out of you physically, mentally and emotionally. So after a win is the perfect time to rest, relax and rejuvenate.
Buy a cake or a sweet treat
Look, I’m that person that goes and buys a cake for the final of Bake Off to celebrate whoever wins. You can bet I’m buying a cake for myself, too! Or maybe make something from scratch. What about these easy and delicious Rocky Roads?
Be in the moment
Something I learned from life coaching is that it’s obviously great to set goals but when you actually HIT those goals, we rarely take the time to just sit in that feeling and be in the moment. We’re always constantly moving on to the next thing. Well, don’t. Sit in it.
Journal about how it feels
Sometimes our feelings are all over the place when we achieve something. Regardless of how big or small, a whole range of emotions can come up – some that we don’t expect. So this is a great time to journal how you’re feeling.
Share it with others
An achievement is best celebrated with others. So don’t keep it to yourself. Share it with the people you love who you know will support you and celebrate with you. Sadly not everyone is like that – so choose wisely.
Express gratitude
Take some time to express gratitude for who or what helped you achieve this goal and get you to where you are. Perhaps it’s a coach or a personal trainer. A family member or your partner. A course you took or a friend you spoke to. Whoever it is, be grateful.
Get creative to mark the occasion
Poetry, painting, baking and cooking – whatever you like to do that’s creative – are great ways to switch off and relax after working hard at something but also processing all that energy into something fun!
Whatever the heck you want!
Of course when you’ve had such a great achievement, you should celebrate however the heck you want, these were just some basic suggestions to help you, in case you were struggling!
Celebrating small achievements is SO important. And is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot in my own life lately. We celebrate births, marriage, engagements, promotions – even death – in abundance but what about those smaller things that make up the rest of our one precious life? Learning how to celebrate small achievements is just as – if not more – important.
In between those almighty big moments are all those little wins and achievements. You can’t spend your whole life waiting for the next big thing to happen, otherwise you’ll be waiting forever and most importantly, you’ll be missing out on all those beautiful small wins in between.
Great post Jenny! I don’t remember if I read this before, but it is super important to celebrate little things too. Sometimes it’s how to we get to the big thing.
Yes absolutely 🙂
I always celebrate everything (small or big thing alike) with cake, because cake it’s life! I just associate it with positive thoughts, so it’s bound to be my #1 choice always!
YES to celebrating everything with cake!
I love these ways of celebrating achievements in a healthy way! I suffer with a lot of anxiety so I tend to shy away from celebrating when really I should be doing so, so I think this post will really come in handy for me. Thank you for sharing these tips with us lovely, I’ll be making good use of them Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
Ah babe I hope you can use these suggestions and celebrate yourself a bit more you totally deserve it!
It’s helpful for many people to see these all written down in a list. Working with people who have difficulty with this sort of thing, I’m well-aware of how much trouble people have at even knowing what to do! I particularly like journaling because that way you can explore all the ways the achievement makes you feel and then it’s written somewhere that those thoughts will never go away.
Thank you, I agree about the journaling!
I do tend to get carried away and get a bit over excited when it comes to celebrating things, especially when it comes to myself. So I would just rather stick to maybe a pamper night or just spoil myself with some great food. Thanks for the lovely suggestions Jenny ❣.
There’s no such thing as over excited. I’m glad you take that time to celebrate yourself!
I’m not a person who generally celebrates small wins but i’ve been trying to get into it recently. It has been important especially with the stressful time i’ve had recently. I bought myself a special edition book the first time, treated myself to an evening of chill next, and then ive simply done what i want to. one time, it was cleaning the house haha. Great post as always, Jenny!
I’m so glad to hear you’ve been taking it easy on yourself – I just read your October reading wrap up and it sounds like it’s been a tough few months xxx
This is so nice to read! I’ll admit that I rarely take time to celebrate any of my achievements or victories. But I’d like to change that after reading this post! Such good ideas!
I hope you do change that!
I didn’t realize that my 5 year blogging anniversary was next month! I thought it was in december, and so I was looking back at all my old posts from the past 5 years, and I honestly feel so proud of myself to see how far I’ve come! My writing has improved, I seemed to have found my “blogging voice”. I will definitely celebrate when the day comes! xx
Melina | http://www.melinaelisa.com
Awh wow that’s amazing – I hope you’re going to celebrate!
I like to treat myself when I have a little achievement, even if it’s something as simple as a takeaway! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Oh yes a takeaway is a great treat!
Wonderful post! We often do not take the time to celebrate the little steps along the way, and yet, without the little steps, we would not get anywhere. Great ideas for making the most of our celebrations…:)
Thank you — totally agree!
Oh this was such a nice read! I often forget to give myself a break to celebrate my achievements, no matter how small! Lovely ideas here! Thank you for sharing!
Hope you can start doing that!
I’m all about celebrating even the small of events of achievements! It brings such joy in my life. I used to wait for someone to acknowledge special events or milestones in my life but I often just got disappointed when they didn’t. So now it’s my party to plan and to celebrate! Great post!
Oh yes same, no point waiting for other people to notice, just celebrate yourself !
I often give myself some time off when I make a small achievement, such as going for a drink in my favourite café or buying myself something nice. These are fantastic suggestions x
That’s lovely, yes I sometimes take myself out for a coffee!
I think it’s so important to celebrate the small things too! What’s the point if we don’t congratulate ourselves? Love this xx
Totally agree! Thanks girl x
It’s so important for us to learn how to celebrate the small moments and be present minded. I know I sometimes struggle with this, especially when things don’t go exactly as planned.
Oh yes same, you’re not alone there!
You make such a good point that we often set goals but not celebrate them when we achieve them. It seems so silly now that I reflect on how I do that! These are great suggestions for celebrating small wins. I journal a lot to process all the good, bad, and in between of life, so that’s for sure one way I mark the occasion. And I’m one to buy a treat to indulge in too 🙂
Yes totally! We hit one goal and we’re straight into the next, we just don’t take the time to sit in that feeling.
Yes to all of this!! I agree so much, we really do need to celebrate all the wins – big and small! I think life with a chronic illness makes it even more important to celebrate those small wins!
Katie May xx
Oh yes for sure! I don’t have experience with that but I bet it’s a huge boost for you to celebrate those small wins regularly!
Yay!!!!!! All success are meant to celebrate. I did all these to celebrate my success. Thank you for sharing.
I agree, all successes should be celebrated!
Hey Jenny, I love this post. I totally agree, having a pamper day is the best way to celebrate for me. Thanks for sharing a great post. Alicia
Yes a little pamper is a lovely way to celebrate, particularly if it’s been a bit hard along the way!
I do love the thought behind this post. Every small win is important and should be celebrated. I usually am happy with those small wins but hardly ever take time to celebrate it. I usually just sit down and plan the next thing I would like to accomplish. I should take some time and stick with that win and celebrate it. Thank you for this reminder 😘
Yes next time, take a little time just to sit in that feeling!
This was super cute, I’m all for celebrating the small wins in life! I particularly like the one about sharing it with others because I think sometimes people can be embarrassed to shout about their small wins because they feel they aren’t big enough to brag about!
I definitely get embarrassed to show my excitement because I always feel like I’m bragging. I also don’t want other people to feel bad about themselves.
Thank you (: I totally agree, especially when you’re on social media and people are talking about their huge achievements. Your small wins matter too!
Cool post. Definitely celebrate every step.
Thank you x