The Power of Small Wins

Building Momentum Through Small Wins and Micro-Actions

The Myth of Taking a Giant Leap

A common cause for failure is overstating our goals and overestimating our ability to commit. By not remaining honest and self-reflective, it is easy to get frustrated when perfectly attainable goals seem too far away after a short period of pursuit.

By focusing on small wins, we can appreciate the minute day-to-day progress. Instead of saying things like “wow, I hit the same time consistently for the past three runs, I’m building a solid base,” we may say something like “I’m no closer to my goal than I was three runs ago.” This happens in every aspect of our lives and prevents us from even trying because it is easier when we aren’t measuring, let alone trying to improve. Recognizing small wins is essential in this process.

This can happen with personal goals, professional milestones, commitments, deadlines, travel plans, expectations, and much more.  By having the BIG mindset, we often miss out on the smaller steps we took to get there and may miss the goal altogether due to lack of motivation, progress or hope. 

Most recently, I drew the parallel between my training plan and the goals my workplace has set up for us to achieve. My Garmin watch and Connect+ app has a feature that creates a training plan based on current performance, a goal, and a time to meet that goal.  I was absolutely convinced that I could take a minute off my mile time in 12 weeks based on zero scientific evidence or real-world data. 

My first three workouts went well, they were a push but I got through them.  The fourth workout was a different story and it felt different as soon as I woke up to see what was planned.  The training plan prescribed was asking me to ‘warm-up’ at my current mile pace and then push for a mile at a pace that took 40 seconds off my mile time. My first thought was “You’ve got to be kidding me” but I decided to give it a go and give it my all. The warm-up was achieved, the first tempo run was a stretch but I kept pace for about half of the time.  I dropped my pace, otherwise I would burn out and wouldn’t even complete the training. 

That’s when the BIG goal started getting in the way.  My watch began to beep, letting me know that I am not inside the desired pace window.  As I continued running at my reduced pace, trying to catch my breath, my watch continued to beep.  Then it occurred to me, I can either continue running at this pace, with my watch beeping at me, or I can walk. Walking, running, the watch will beep all the same, I get the same input despite a complete 180 in my behavior and attitude towards the run. So, I walked.  I tried again on the next interval but it was the same story, just a shorter time to get there. I went through the remainder of my workout with my watch beeping at me, letting me know I was failing.  To add insult to injury, at the end of a very tiring run, it gave me a performance evaluation of 0 out of 100! What are we supposed to do with the information?

Small wins are not just trivial accomplishments; they are the stepping stones to achieving larger goals. When we acknowledge these small wins, we begin to shift our mindset, focusing on progress rather than perfection. Embracing small wins can lead to a more fulfilling journey toward success.

So what was the parallel between that trainwreck of a training session and the goals in my workplace? Most workplaces set up a budget year with targets they need to meet based on a build up of several inputs, assumptions, and models.  Similar to the training plan, we need to give an idea of what the goal is (mile time), the timeline (one calendar year), and we should be basing it on past performance alongside trending information. 

One could argue that the entire mindset, behavior and attitude of a site or operation changes on January 1st, but that argument belongs to someone who is disconnected from reality.  The truth is, we need to look at our performance history to provide insights into what our performance goals should be. What ends up happening is the teams agree upon a realistic goal that is challenged or inflated to meet external pressures.  Despite all the planning, preparation, trending data, and logical arguments, the budget goals are now requiring the positive alignment of all assumptions related to cost, productivity, and safety. 

What ended up happening? By the first quarter we were below target by a small percentage, about 2%.  Meaning we achieved 98% of what we said we would.  Cue the beeping.  We started getting regular weekly notifications from the regional and head office indicating we are off the mark. The challenge is trying to self-motivate when this isn’t the plan you built, it’s the plan you built with some arbitrary inflation added on top.  Now we are rounding the corner of the second quarter, still within 2% of the goal but seeing no way we can achieve the end of year goal.  It’s worse than that, we are taking value away from next year (through short sided maintenance, pulling revenue forward, etc.) in order to meet this goal this year.  That would be similar to injecting myself with adrenaline just to get through the training session, or pushing myself to injury rather than slowing pace. 

Consider the impact of small wins on your daily routine. Each time you complete a small task, you build confidence and momentum. This is crucial in both personal and professional realms.

The science behind small wins reveals that our brains are wired to respond positively to these achievements. Each small win releases dopamine, reinforcing our motivation to continue. This is why celebrating small wins is vital for long-term success.

By focusing on the BIG goal, and losing sight of where we’ve come from and the micro-actions that we need to accomplish to get where we are going, I’m arguing that it is detrimental to transformation.  What if the key to transformation isn’t massive action, but consistent, tiny steps?

The Science of Small Wins

Every small win contributes to a larger victory. It’s important to keep track of these achievements, no matter how minor they may seem, as they collectively lead to significant progress over time.

“Success is the sum of small wins, repeated day in and day out.” Remember, this philosophy applies to every aspect of life, whether in sports, business, or personal growth.

The idea that tiny, consistent actions lead to big changes isn’t just feel-good advice, it’s evident in nature and neuroscience. Each time we complete a small goal, our brain releases a hit of dopamine, the feel-good chemical associated with motivation and reward. These micro-rewards help us feel progress, reinforcing the behavior and encouraging repetition. This is the foundation of habit loops, a concept made popular by Charles Duhigg and James Clear, and echoed by anyone who’s ever told you to “just start.”

But in practice, it’s uncomfortable to do something small when a looming big goal hangs in the background. It feels like bringing a spoon to dig a tunnel. That’s because the dopamine system is about perceived progress, not actual distance from the goal. If the feedback loop is broken then I’m being trained to associate my effort with failure, not growth.

Coming back to my training experience with my watch beeping at me for not being “fast enough”.  Each beep felt like an interruption to my positive self-talk mid-sentence to tell me that I’m wrong, I won’t achieve what I set out to achieve. Even when I was doing my best, the feedback loop was consistent, upfront and negative. 

At work or home, we don’t set ourselves up to get the dopamine hit.  We can get 98% of our list done, including responding to emails, going to meetings, engaging with people, and our brain learns only one thing: effort = dread.

How do we reverse negative feedback loops? It sounds counter-intuitive but give yourself credit for doing anything more than nothing. 

I’ve started writing down one ‘small win’ every night before bed.  Some nights it’s just ‘didn’t overeat, overreact, think negatively.’ But that’s enough to start reprogramming the brain to recognize that effort = reward.

When we acknowledge and celebrate small wins like completing a meeting on time, stretching for five minutes, writing a paragraph, we build momentum. Momentum inspires motivation, and motivation sustains discipline. Ironically, it’s not success that creates motivation; it’s motion.

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”

— Robert Collier

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Shrinking the Goal Without Losing the Dream

There’s a quiet strength in adjusting your path while keeping your destination intact. Shrinking the goal doesn’t mean giving up on it. It means translating the dream into something achievable today.

In the world of personal development, small wins serve as the foundation for building lasting habits. They remind us that progress is not always linear but can be achieved through consistent effort.

To truly appreciate what we can achieve through small wins, it’s essential to reflect on our progress regularly. Acknowledging these moments can fuel our motivation and drive us to pursue further achievements.

Let’s go back to the training analogy. Instead of focusing on shaving an entire minute off my mile time, I could’ve focused on consistency. A few examples come to mind; running four days a week, maintaining heart rate zones, or simply completing the sessions regardless of pace. All of these would have moved me forward. The training plan would still be working; the transformation would still be happening.

At work, this might mean breaking a quarterly output goal into weekly “green lights” to give metrics you can realistically influence and track. Not the inflated version approved by someone two time zones away, but the numbers that keep you and your team engaged and focused. You shift the conversation from “Are we hitting the target?” to “Did we show up today? What moved forward? Did we do our best with what we had?”

The trap to avoid is thinking progress only counts if it’s measurable in percentage points or KPIs. But the truth is, achieving 98% isn’t failure, it’s data. It’s the kind of information that could help us re-forecast, adapt, and improve but only if we stop treating it like a red alert. So whether you apply it to training, work, or even parenthood, the key takeaway here is to refocus the measurables based on effort, consistency, and showing up.  Remember, that even saying something like “I will improve a little bit each day” comes with its hidden dangers because each day your body ages, the situation changes and if not carefully considered, this prompts the brain to highlight “failure”. 

Photo by Dejan Zakic on Unsplash

Motivation Lives in the Middle

Most motivational content celebrates the beginning (“Just start!”) or the end (“Look what I achieved!”). This has been exaggerated in the past decade in social media with transformation or motivational posts that are usually a person who has already achieved what they set out to achieve.  But transformation happens in the middle. And the middle is boring. It’s repetitive. It’s where you show up tired, annoyed, and unsure if it’s working.  If you don’t believe me, try to imagine how engaging you’d find an instagram post would be if it was from the middle.  The middle is where the playlist sucks, your legs are sore, and your brain says, “What’s the point?”.  It’s that spot where we all make the same choice over and over again. Do I continue moving forward or do I stop?

That’s where small wins become the anchor.

In the workplace, the middle is Q2. In training, it’s week 4. In parenthood, being real, it might be all of it. It’s when the initial novelty wears off and the finish line is too far away to matter. But this is the moment that determines whether we quit or consolidate. It’s where we need new definitions of success.  Asking questions like:

In conclusion, the journey to success is often paved with small wins. By focusing on these incremental achievements, we can cultivate a mindset of growth and resilience.

• Did I recover better today?
• Did I support a teammate?
• Did I make a better decision than yesterday?

Your performance doesn’t need to scream to be valid. Sometimes it just needs to whisper, “I showed up again.”  How can you start incorporating those whispers into your daily life?

Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash

Closing: A New Metric for Transformation

Maybe it’s time to retire the scoreboard and embrace the journal.

Instead of measuring success in miles or dollars or deadlines, what if we measured it in persistence, clarity, and alignment? What if your watch didn’t beep at you for falling short, but buzzed gently to say: “You’re still in it.” It’s time to start recognizing things that might be unimpressive to others, but make you proud.  I’ll start: This blog is something I’m proud of.  Even though I may not see a single visitor, I am proud to learn something completely out of my comfort zone.  I set up this website, I wrote this article, and I did all of that while working, studying, etc.  It took me a full week to get this written, but I chipped away at it. So, yes, I’m proud of the effort I put in and I’m happy with the outcome.  Now, taking my own advice, I will continually show up to write down my thoughts, taking the time to articulate them in a way that I hope connects with others. 

So, whether you’re chasing a mile time or a corporate goal, remember this: The real performance indicator isn’t where you land; it’s how you respond when things get quiet, hard, or slow. That’s where transformation actually begins.

So here’s the call to action:

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