The Small Victories
Why do we never celebrate the small victories in our lives? Those tiny daily battles that we face in life, we face them, we conquer them and seem to discard any kind of ‘Well done me!’
I met with a counsellor yesterday for the first time, we that come with a whole bucket of anxieties, its daunting meeting anyone for the first time let alone someone who is going to start asking personal questions within 10 minutes...but that is their job!
The usual inner nerves kick in, it’s pretty awkward and uncomfortable, I get that sense of ‘Why am I am here again?’ ‘I am just wasting their time’...but for once it was a more positive start. (I probably should mention I made contact with this lady earlier this year and then got scared off so only recently got back in contact).
Straight away it was ‘Well done for having the courage to come here’, ‘It was so brave of you to hit send and make contact with me again, to me at the time it was just a case of sending an email and then jumping on the train and going to the appointment.
We never really stop and take the time to celebrate those small victories we make in daily life. It can be anything from simply getting up and dressed when we feel mentally and physically exhausted, making it into work when we are struggling inside or simply allowing ourselves to have that needed time and space to have a sad day.
Life is busy, we move from one thing to another so quickly, decisions can be hasty and we toss aside any feelings that come along with making a decision.
When struggling with mental health, the smallest things that others see as an easy thing to do can be MASSIVE, the battle with self-doubt commonly comes out to play, the overthinking kicks in, the making up 100000 scenarios of what could go wrong, but to fight them off do that thing we thought was impossible is a small victory that deserves to be celebrated.
Celebrations are a great confidence booster, we are quick to dwell on ‘failures’ and the negatives in life yet celebrating the achievements however small or big we seem to forget about. Is it because we think it’s ‘showing off’ or ‘acting arrogant’ if we shout about all the good times? (I think that’s just self-doubt and overthinking telling us that!).
So next time you win that battle with your head telling you can’t do something and you do it anyway CELEBRATE, next time you hit send on a scary text/email CELEBRATE, next time you get up and dressed when you feel rubbish CELEBRATE, all these small victories are part of a much bigger picture and every one of them along the way should recognised as achievements!
I walked away from the meeting feeling positive, she opened my eyes to the fact that all the decisions I made to get me to the appointment were battles that I faced and won, it may just take someone to point out that you should celebrate the smallest of victories!
Author's Bio
Sophie Collumbell is a regular writer for the Counsellors Café Magazine. In Sophie's words: "I don’t take life too seriously, always joking and making people laugh! Family and friends mean the world to me, and my little cat tiggs! Music is my life, I spend most time with my headphones on listening to anything and everything, I believe ‘When words fail music speaks’! I am more creative than anything, I love writing and knowing that hopefully, writing my struggles can help other people is just the best feeling ever! I cannot wait for the future so I can train to be a counsellor and hopefully help someone the way my counsellor has helped me!"
