Are you celebrating the teeny tiny wins?

I crept up the stairs, sidestepping the creaky one, my feet as light as they can be for someone as clumsy as me. (And no, that really isn’t me just trying to be cute. I regularly fall over my own feet!) When I got to the top of the stairs I saw my youngest daughter’s light was off. I poked my head round the door. Asleep? Like a log. Result!

A few more steps took me to my son’s room where his heavy breathing confirmed that he too was out like a light. Given that half an hour earlier he’d been convinced it would be impossible for him to go to sleep, this felt like victory.

Okay, so my eldest was still awake but she’s fourteen and a wonderful sleeper so I decided that two out of three wasn’t bad and allowed myself a moment to revel in my parenting win, if only for one night.

And it was then that it hit me: how often to we mentally beat ourselves up when we get it wrong? We allow ourselves to feel great remorse and shame and sure, the circumstances might warrant it, but what if we gave as much time and attention to those moments when all is right with our world?

It’s a fairly standard planning tactic to take time at the end of a week, or even each day, to celebrate the wins but what if we’re setting the bar too high? No one ever writes “only ate one kitkat” or “didn’t make any of the children cry today” on these things but what if we did?

Because I don’t know about you but those “teeny tiny” things can feel pretty insurmountable when they go the other way and you can betcha that if, heaven forbid, you were to eat four kitkats tomorrow, you wouldn’t let yourself hear the end of it!

And so, for one day only, I dare you to consciously choose to celebrate the wins, no matter how tiny, and see what kind of an impact it has on your day.

(And yes, I’ll be playing too so hit reply at end of your twenty four hours. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. ?)

Know someone who needs this?