Micro-win your way into happier year-end
YOU KNOW ’tis the season to be jolly when you pop into the mall to grab your groceries and find yourself confronted by the sounds of Have yourself a merry little Christmas and Deck the halls with boughs of holly tra-la-la-la-la-lala-la-la.
There are people who embrace this as a form of entertainment while others boldly declare it a form of torture.
In the same way, there are individuals who are celebrating a fantastic end to a rewarding year while others feel stressed, tired and grumpy and can’t wait to see the other side of the year.
Irrespective of whether you find yourself in the former satisfied, or dare I say happy, group of people or whether you are fatigued at the thought of this year, the strategy of applying micro-wins is worth exploring.
What does it mean to micro-win your way into anything anyway?
How will a micro-win turn a frown upside down when all you desperately desire is a major success or big win?
The problem with success is that it is reliant on the achievement of a goal and some goals take months or maybe even years to accomplish.
The bigger the goal, the longer it takes to complete and the longer it takes to complete, the harder it is to sustain your levels of motivation and excitement at achieving the eventual outcome.
Maybe you started the year with ambitious goals but haven’t made the progress you had hoped for. Perhaps you are drained from coping with the loss of a loved one, ill-health, an energy-sapping boss, financial strain or factors out of your control.
All this serves to amplify your feelings of stress and unhappiness; instead of a warm fuzzy feeling at the sound of Christmas carols, you break out into an anxious sweat.
The good news is there is still time to change your experience, and here’s how micro-wins can help you. Micro-wins are the seemingly insignificant wins that occur in abundance every day but go by largely unnoticed.
As a human being, you desire progress. Progress is what makes you feel energised, keeps you motivated and fuels your performance.
The more you feed your positivity, the more positivity you will have to feed, and feeding your positivity starts with celebrating your micro-wins.
Let’s use the example of low energy levels: To apply the microwins strategy, shift your focus to celebrating and acknowledging yourself for all the steps you take towards increasing your energy.
For example, celebrate the fact that you chose a healthy meal option for lunch instead of a greasy plate of chips, or you’ve taken the steps rather than opting for the lift.
You might not notice the change immediately; however, the more frequently you acknowledge your micro-wins and if you adopt this strategy as a daily discipline, you will micro-win your way to a happier year-end and into the start of a happy new year, too.