Celebrate ALL wins

Happy Valentine's Day to all who celebrate. I thought it would be fitting to talk about forms of self-love on this lovely day of love. Truth be told, I am all for self-love, but I'm not a big fan of it being trendy verbiage. "Self-love" is often overused and told that ~everyone should love themselves~. Not to say that can't be a goal or something to strive for, but saying "just love yourself" is not helpful. I think society encourages us to lean toward extremes of love and hate vs finding contentment or acceptance while striving to continuously improve. ANYWAYS. The main point worth touching on today is celebrating all wins as a form of reflection, and maybe even a form of self-love. It's easy to get caught up in not feeling like you're progressing without tangible or mind-blowing changes. It can be hard to identify progress in yourself because you see yourself everyday. You see yourself in the same bathroom mirror at least 2x/day. You see yourself put on the same clothes as you did last week. You see yourself working the same job as you have for the past couple years or more. You see yourself going to the same gym. You see yourself opening the same fridge every day. The list goes on and on. What you do day to day is pretty routine and mundane. Newsflash: the mundane is where the magic happens. When reflecting on your progress thus far, it's important to celebrate both the big and small wins. Small wins could be: - Eating vegetables daily - Achieving a daily step goal most days of the week - Training 2-5x/week - Falling asleep faster and staying asleep throughout the night - Drinking adequate amounts of water daily - Taking a mid-day break to move your body (walk, stretch, etc.) All of these small wins lead to BIG wins. It takes more than training consistently to successfully run a half marathon. It takes more than daily steps to improve general health. It takes more than eating well to feel better overall. But all of these small wins and changes over time lead to big outcomes. It's important to recognize and celebrate each of these wins, as it does take time and patience to make changes. I encourage you to take some time today to ask yourself: What's something you routinely do now that wasn't a habit before? What's something you're proud of doing in the last month? What's something you're proud of committing to in the last six months? Every win counts. Celebrate it all.