Celebrating Your Small w’s Along the Way

I was talking to a friend a few days ago. This year we are both focusing on our health and losing weight. She’s made a lot of progress but mentioned that when she weighs herself on her scale she doesn’t count when she loses “points,” meaning fractions of a pound. This struck me as odd, because being overweight myself, any progress is good, and it got me thinking about how your mindset can impact your progress.

For instance, let’s say you’ve been working hard to get fit. Eating healthier, weightlifting, cardio; everything you’re supposed to do. And when you weigh yourself each day, you’re losing .2 pounds. This upsets you and you think, “I’m doing all this work for .2 pounds?” Well, when you think about it, if you’re exercising 5 days a week and resting 2 days, then you’re losing 1 pound a week, which is actually VERY good. You’re on track to lose 52 pounds in a year, which is nothing to scoff at, but throughout the course of your journey you’ve been belittling your progress. So what happens at the end of the week when you lose that pound? You say, “Only a pound? What’s the point of all that effort?” You end up turning what should be a big win into a loss. Then that compounds into the next week, then into that month. “Only 4 pounds?! What’s the point? I give up!”

This is a very harmful mindset to have when you’re trying to accomplish a goal. If you feed these thoughts, what do you think will happen once you finally reach your goal weight? You might feel proud that you got to your goal, but will you feel fulfilled? Will you congratulate yourself? Or will you think that you should have accomplished this sooner, started earlier, worked harder? If you feel negative after achieving something that you’ve been striving for, then what’s the point? Really, what is the point of all your hard work and sacrifice if you can’t truly enjoy yourself in the end? Fulfillment doesn’t come from accomplishing your goals with ease. It comes from enjoying the journey and learning about yourself in the process; but you can’t focus on that if you’re constantly overlooking all the progress you’ve made.

This doesn’t have to be about weight loss either. It can be about anything. If you’re caught up being disappointed in your progress along the way, then you’re less likely to stick with whatever journey you’re on. So acknowledge your small gains and realize that nothing great comes overnight. If it were that easy, you‘d be more prone to regress anyway, because you didn’t have to put in the work.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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