Advance Your Career by Celebrating Your “Small Wins”

We know how important it is to keep track of your accomplishments; doing so is good for your professional development, your resume, and potential promotions.

However, it’s easy to get sucked into the idea that your accomplishments have to be big wins: thousands of dollars in grant money secured, hundreds of kids served, or a new website launched. While these are important, you also need to see your growth and stay positive about your work on a day-to-day basis. In other words, you also need focus on your small wins.

Over at The Bamboo Project, career development expert Michele Martin talks about the power of keeping track of your small wins and provides a great downloadable worksheet to help you get started:

"What the research shows is that when you focus on forward progress and what you want MORE of at work (as opposed to all the problems, etc. you may be facing) you are more likely to experience your work in a positive light and you are better able to build on your strengths. Even on the worst work day ever, you can find some small glimmer of hope and progress to focus on.

To help with that daily practice, I created a Small Wins Journal that you can print out and use for yourself. It includes three prompts:

• Today I made progress in . . . 
• I can apply what I learned today to. . . 
• What worked well today that I can do MORE of tomorrow . . . 

Take a few minutes at the end of each day to respond to the prompts. This will help you see where you've made progress (however small) and keep you thinking more about what's working, rather than about what's not working in your career."

Read the rest of her insights on The Bamboo Project and download her Small Wins Journal.

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by Allison Jones