When You're Willing to Celebrate the Small Wins You Can Build on Your Progress
I love teaching people principles that help make their lives more peaceful and joy-filled, and I apply those things in my own life too. When I offer encouragement, support, or advice, it’s not because I like to hear myself talk, it’s because I enjoy helping people elevate their lives. And I typically take my own advice.
One of the common things I say is that oftentimes, we can’t control the situation we’re in, but we can absolutely control our response to it. Last summer, the situation was that my air conditioner stopped working in my home…in South Louisiana…in August.
Billions of people live without the luxury of air conditioning, yet living without it for a short time, highlighted how much I cling to comfort. Weeks earlier I wrote about being overly critical, and at the time, I also recognized that I cling to comfort. While I’m thankful that I live with so many comforts, I recognize areas that need improvement in myself.
When I’m uncomfortable - too hot, too cold, hungry, overly tired, etc. I’m tempted to be overly dramatic or cranky, but I’m doing some things differently this year. And when my A/C went out I had the opportunity to prove it (to myself).
When I woke up, around 5 am on the morning it went out, I took a shower and headed to Church of the King for Week of Prayer at 6 am. I’m not an early bird. I’m certainly making progress in that area, but I’m still so thankful that I went. The flexibility in our schedules that allowed us to do that is a gift, and we were also reminded how loved and supported while we were there.
Throughout the day, friends invited us to spend the night at their house while other friends took care of our fur baby for the day. While it would have been easy to become frustrated - and I certainly have in other instances when the same things occurred, I didn’t feel as frustrated this time.
Yes, I asked the Lord for it to be a quick and affordable fix, but I didn’t feel compelled to be grumpy about it. I reminded myself that it would eventually be fixed, and it was. What’s in our hearts tends to come out of our mouths, and my reaction felt like major progress in my attitude.
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and I bad tree can’t produce good fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what’s in your heart.”
— Luke 6: 43-45
Knowing that my heart was positioned to deal with something unpleasant differently than I might have before felt good. When you’re making intentional strides in growing it important to celebrate the wins whether they seem big or small.
And while we’re talking about celebrating wins, I’ll share a few other wins I’m celebrating right now.
I’m hitting my veggie intake goals pretty consistently now since I started focusing my efforts on that last year.
I’ve launched a podcast that I hope to continue to grow.
My knee doesn’t hurt anymore.
I visited with friends I haven’t seen in years earlier this week while I was in Minnesota.
I made time for margin last week since I knew my weekend would be incredibly busy.
I’m writing consistently.
What are you celebrating? Will you tell me about the last win your celebrated in the comments?