Small Wins Count. Even Without a Trophy.

It’s easy to recognize progress when something big happens.

You finish a course. Launch a business. Reach a goal you’ve been working toward for months.

Those moments deserve celebrating. But there’s a lot of life happening between them, and I don’t want to spend all that time feeling like I’m waiting for my next achievement to count.

That’s what I appreciated about the Cultivating a Growth Mindset worksheet during my coaching training. It started by asking me to look at my achievements over the last ten days.

Ten days. A manageable stretch of ordinary life.

That shorter window encouraged me to pay attention to the progress I might otherwise brush past. The things that don’t come with an announcement, a certificate, or someone handing you a trophy.

Although, occasionally, a trophy for dealing with an annoying administrative task would be appreciated.

When I only recognize the big wins, the day-to-day can start to feel repetitive. I’m doing things, putting in effort, and learning along the way, but my attention is already on whatever remains unfinished.

There’s always another task available to take the spotlight.

This exercise reminded me to pause long enough to acknowledge what I’ve already done.

An achievement might be having a conversation I’ve been avoiding, finishing one part of a larger project, asking for support, or trying something unfamiliar. It might be making a decision that respects my capacity.

Those things can matter even when there’s still plenty left to do.

I also liked that the worksheet asked me to consider what contributed to those achievements. That adds something useful to the reflection. I can notice the effort, choices, support, or strengths that helped me move forward, and think about what I want to carry into the next step.

Then came the question that really caught my attention: what opportunities might be available over the next ten days, and what could come from them?

I found that energizing.

A lot of planning exercises ask us to identify obstacles, anticipate problems, and prepare for what could go wrong. There’s value in that. I want to understand the challenges involved in what I’m doing.

But I’ve noticed that I feel more motivated when I also give real attention to what could go well.

What could I learn? Who could I connect with? What idea could I try? What might become possible if I took one step toward it?

That changes how a task feels to me. I can see a reason to engage with it beyond getting it off the list.

For a business like Minto’s Mind Space, that could mean looking at an idea for a workshop and imagining the conversations, creativity, and connections it might make room for. There would still be details to organize, but I’d have a clearer connection to why I wanted to do the work.

An opportunity doesn’t come with a guaranteed outcome. I can still be curious about it, give it some thought, and decide whether it’s worth exploring.

I appreciate the ten-day window here, too. It gives me enough room to take a meaningful step without asking me to map out my entire future before lunch.

And looking back at recent achievements before looking ahead offers a useful reminder: I already have evidence that I can make progress.

This is something I want to bring into my coaching as well. Alongside exploring what someone wants to change, I want to make room for what’s working, what they’ve learned, and what they’re looking forward to.

There’s information in those things. There’s motivation there for me, too.

So here’s a reflection to try:

What’s one thing you’ve done recently that deserves more credit than you’ve given it, and one opportunity you’d like to explore next?

Give yourself a moment to answer the first part before moving on to the second.

The unfinished list can wait a minute.

Tegan