Celebrate Your Victories

In any new challenge you take on, there are naturally going to be some highs and some lows. It’s important to celebrate the victories along the way to keep you positive about your overall journey, since positivity will make you much more motivated to keep going than beating yourself up.

For example, say you set a goal of eating something green at every meal to up your vegetable intake. You’re generally doing it, but then you have a day where, for whatever reason, things don’t go to plan and you don’t have any servings of greens that day. There are two ways to look at that:

A lot of people mentally jump to “Ugh, I didn’t meet my goal. I failed. This is too hard.” It tends to spiral into even more negativity: “I’m not good enough. I can’t do this”-type thoughts that make them give up.

Shift your perspective so you’re focused on the victories, not the setbacks.

It’s also great to reward yourself for the goals you accomplish along the way, to feel like you’re really celebrating your hard work. A few ideas:

1. Self Care
   Treat yourself to a relaxing bath, or take some time out to meditate.
2. Shop
   Buy something that will motivate you to keep going on your healthy path: a new pair of sneakers or a beautiful salad bowl.
3. Journal
   Write down your accomplishments in a journal. For me, seeing it in print makes me pause and really note how hard I worked to accomplish something.

So the next time your mind jumps to harping on the negative of what you didn’t do, try to do that positive shift in perspective and cheer on what you did do. And the next time you meet your goal, pause to really celebrate your victory!