Celebrate your wins

Most people underestimate the impact of neurotransmitters on their mental health. This is particularly true if you have a condition that causes a deficiency or irregularity of a neurotransmitter. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is involved in feelings of pleasure and joy, and when you don’t have enough of it (as in ADHD), you probably have trouble with mood and motivation. In addition to long-term activities like the achievement of goals, dopamine can be activated when you achieve short-term, instant success or sense of satisfaction. The (potentially subconscious) craving for a dopamine hit can sometimes lead to impulsive behaviors (which is why impulsivity is a characteristic of ADHD), but it can also be activated in healthy ways, such as by celebrating small wins.

Celebrating Small Wins Boosts Motivation

By celebrating your small wins, you change your perspective and change your feeling about yourself. When you celebrate yourself and acknowledge progress and accomplishments, you start to look at your own achievements in a new light. This leads to a sense of excitement and confidence that can increase your motivation.

Small Wins Boost Self-Esteem

Your self-esteem suffers when you only focus on what you haven’t achieved or compare yourself to others. Small wins, on the other hand, have the opposite effect. They remind you what you have done and therefore are capable of. They remind you of reasons to be proud of yourself.

Celebrating Small Wins Encourages Mindfulness

Mindfulness involves paying attention nonjudgmentally to our present moment experience. This can be difficult for those who struggle with their mental health. It is all too easy to get hung up on past mistakes or to put too many of your hopes on the future. Celebrating your small wins means celebrating what you’ve done today – even if that’s just getting out of bed. It grounds you in the present moment and encourages you to fully focus on that.

You Deserve To Celebrate Your Small Wins

One of the biggest lies you can tell yourself is that your accomplishments don’t deserve to be celebrated. You may believe that your accomplishments weren’t enough because they weren’t all that you hoped for, or they weren’t as much as someone else’s accomplishments. This is simply not true. Taking two steps forward is an accomplishment, even if you take a step backward, and that progress deserves to be celebrated.

Here are a few small wins you can celebrate:

Learning something new
Reading a book
Writing a to-do list for the day and crossing off even some of the items
Going to bed or waking up on time
Making a friend smile
Clearing your email inbox
Enforcing your boundaries
Practicing the skills you learned in therapy
Going for a walk
Asking for help
Drinking enough water
Making your bed