I’d like to take the next few minutes to share with you something that is very near and dear to my heart. The advice I am about to tell you has been passed down to me from some of my greatest teachers and mentors over the years. And, honestly, it is one of the secrets that allowed me to achieve massive success in my Physical Therapy Practice and personal life.
As 2022 approached, you may have thought, “NEW YEAR, NEW ME,” or “I’m going to do 100 different things to grow my business this year.” We are always thinking about the areas of life that need improvement.
BUT…the BIG secret to creating bigger future achievements is to celebrate the small wins.
So here are a few questions for you:
- What have you accomplished since starting your own practice?
- Is it possible that you may have had some (or MANY) wins that you may have missed or overlooked?
- Is it also possible that the small wins that you experienced, but were overlooked, are the very things that are responsible for creating the massive results?
It’s easy to think of the things we do as insignificant or “too small”, but we are able to see some of the most successful men and women in the world practicing small daily tasks to accomplish these amazing accomplishments.
Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
A few years back I remember reading a little book entitled, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff,” by Richard Carlson. While I was reading the book, I was busy running my PT practice and learning the steps that would eventually become known to you as The Automated Professional Practice. During this pivotal time period while learning how NOT to sweat the small stuff, I was reminded of an idea that has since then drastically changed my life.
That simple idea was learning how to give yourself permission to celebrate your small wins.
Celebrating small wins is not something that comes easy – especially with our group of people. It is something that has to be learned through observation and practice.
We have all heard from the world’s most successful millionaires and billionaires that success is a cumulative game, meaning success is not something that happens overnight or all at once. Success is something that is practiced over and over until it accumulates into something that we perceive is a “BIG WIN”.
Successful days turn into successful weeks, which hopefully turn into successful months, and then you’re having whole successful years. The point here is that you should be capturing and appreciating each win that comes each day and let that win inspire you to create MORE WINS.
We have all experienced that moment where we think to ourselves, “Hey, that was really great!” Then, it’s typical to think of something you still need to work on or something that is not going as well in your business. Instead, take the time to appreciate your small wins and learn from them. What was your mindset when you achieved a small win? Who helped you achieve the small win? What actions did you take to set yourself up for success? By reflecting on these things, you will learn how to create more small wins that contribute to better future winnings.
THE PROCESS
Now it’s time to actually tell you how to participate in the practice that I described above.
Once you complete this process, I would love to hear about all of the amazing insights that you have gained by simply reflecting.
Phase one of the process is called capture.
Phase two of the process is called celebrate.
I recommend you do this exercise a couple of times over the next few weeks.
In the first phase, you are going to take some time to think about your entire 2021. Take time to breathe and go over everything that happened in your business and personal life. (2021 was a little scary – take deep breaths!)
As you scan over the events of your life, pay attention to all of the small wins that you experienced. Take out a sheet of paper and pen and start writing them down. Pay close attention to how winning feels. Be patient with this process and really dive into it.
After you finish this task, take another moment to look back on the year and pay close attention to the perceived negative experiences that you may have experienced that could be small wins disguised as negativity. Perception creates reality and what you may have perceived as a negative situation at the moment could, in fact, be a major win in disguise!
RE-ENGINEER YOUR SUCCESS AND SMALL WINS
This exercise we are doing is called re-engineering your success. By looking backward, we are learning how to accelerate ourselves forward.
Life is all about momentum in this evolutionary universe. Everything is moving forward, so there’s no reason why you can’t.
By now you should have a list of the small recognizable wins along with some of the negative experiences that may have actually been wins in disguise.
Now, it’s time to CELEBRATE!
Take the time to appreciate the recognizable wins by expressing small thoughts of gratitude in your heart while writing down how each particular win helped you progress. For the negative experiences, ask yourself one simple question. In what way can this perceived negativity actually be a small win in disguise?
I encourage you to apply this exercise to your daily routine. As you do, you will begin to experience a feeling of forwarding momentum growing in every area of your life. We attract more of what we pay attention to after all.
KEEP MOVING FORWARD
Remember, the purpose of looking back is to accelerate forward. It’s time to reverse engineer your own personal success.
So, what are your goals now?
Is It building a better team, establishing key relationships, or growing your practice?
If growing your practice is your top goal, then you need to become very specific. A lot of people have goals, but they’re not specific enough to be turned into reality. Do you want your practice to grow by 20%, 30%, or even 50%?
The next question should naturally be: what steps do I need to take to get there?
In order to achieve more, we have to be willing to become more. And usually, that means being willing to expand your capacity in every area of life. Nothing in life will improve until you decide it’s time to improve.
What do you need to improve?
What areas of your practice do you need to improve?
And what are you willing to sacrifice in order to create the results you desire?
Ultimately, what I am asking is who are you willing to become?
Sometimes becoming who you need to be is changing a few bad habits and limiting belief systems.
But more times than not, we find ourselves stuck in self-defeating cycles that come as a result of sabotaging habits. At one time or another, we have all been victims of crippling outdated habits and behaviors.
The good news is that we can change them.
Each one of us can create a different reality by choosing to become MORE. As you do this, you will not only be celebrating more wins, but you will also become a driving force that empowers and inspires others to do the same.
I am a firm believer in the fact that each one of us can do, have, and be anything we want as long as we are willing to put our minds to it and become the person we need to be in the process.
Learning to celebrate the small wins has literally changed me into a more focused, productive, and ultimately, different person, and I fully believe that it will do the same for you.
Please remember to capture and celebrate your small wins. It truly is an unexpected power that can contribute to great success in your practice and your life.
If you have any questions regarding any of my strategies or have other challenges in your practice affecting your ability to grow, you can send me an email at jamey@practicefreedomu.com.
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