What small wins have you had recently?
Maybe you achieved a new level on a video game, nailed your jump shot, helped a friend in need or improved your grade — even just a little bit — in a class that you’ve been struggling in.
How often do you take stock of tiny achievements like these?
In “Feeling Overwhelmed? Try Tallying Your Tiny Wins,” Jancee Dunn writes about why, according to experts, reflecting on your small successes can boost your motivation and morale. She starts by explaining the “penny method,” a strategy she learned from a colleague when she was feeling overwhelmed at a new job:
He told me to imagine a jar and suggested that I add a metaphorical penny to it every time I achieved something — even a task as small as finding my way back to my desk.
Over time, he said, you will fill up the jar. You will see that you are moving forward, even when you don’t feel that you are, he added.
I still think about that jar, especially when I’m having a rough time. I still deposit “pennies.”
Tallying up victories, even little ones, can be motivating, said B.J. Fogg, the founder of the Behavioral Design Lab at Stanford University and the author of “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything.”
In his two decades of research for his book, Dr. Fogg found that adults had many ways to say “I did a bad job,” and very few ways of saying “I did a good job.” But tracking your wins by using something like the penny method is effective for morale and motivation, he said.
“You’re deliberately causing yourself to feel successful in the moment,” Dr. Fogg said. And it adds up, “so you can reflect back and go, ‘Oh my gosh, I have made progress.’”
Big achievements, like completing an important project, do have more motivational power, said Teresa Amabile, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and an author of “The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement and Creativity at Work.” But major accomplishments are rare, she added, “which means we can’t count on them to keep people motivated day to day.”
Dr. Amabile said her research suggested that most people have “experienced a kind of outsized enjoyment” from small wins at work. She explained how one subject, for example, fixed a bug in his office’s computer system, and that made him feel “happy and motivated for days.”
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
What did you learn? What, if anything, surprised you? Is “tallying your tiny wins” a strategy you could see yourself using in your day-to-day life? Why or why not?
What are some small victories that you’ve had recently? Maybe they’re related to a sport you play, school, your friendships or just life in general. What have you succeeded at lately?
How does taking stock of these achievements make you feel? Does it make you realize that you’re further along on something than you thought? Does it motivate you to keep going on a project? Does it make you feel better about yourself overall? Something else?
Dr. Fogg, one of the experts interviewed for this article, found in his research that people had many ways to say “I did a bad job,” and very few ways of saying “I did a good job.” Is that true of you? Do you tend to focus more on the ways you’ve failed than the ways you’ve succeeded? How do you think that affects you?
What other strategies do you use to motivate or lift yourself up when you’re feeling down, defeated or overwhelmed? How do they help you? Do you think they could help others?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
