I think I need to learn how to celebrate small victories
Echoing the title: I need to learn how to put small victories in my life on a pedestal.
I was reading a random blog post about the author's personal pride after having walked 10k steps every day for the entire month of January (of the year 2026, at the time of this writing of course), and a small voice in me yelped 'yay' in glee, and that surprised me, because I don't really remember internally celebrating any of the life achievements I've managed to accomplish in the recent years.
In the last year (2025 alone), I beat everyone in the small company I work at in a walkathon competition, having succeeded in walking 10,000 steps a day for almost 3 months (almost because I did skip 3-4 days because boy is being consistent hard), garnering the most steps walked, and HR gifted me RM500 of Decathlon vouchers (which I spent upgrading my swimming gears, yay!), and the most significant achievement I personally am proud of, is making it to the summit of Mt Kinabalu, the highest summit in Borneo and incidentally the highest mountain in my country (Malaysia). I did not really post a lot of self appreciation post about that trip in May 2025, but I have never felt proud of myself with this feat, considering I was the least athletic nerd back in high school and someone who sucks at sports in general.
Now that I've put my personal wins in words, I realize the term 'small victories' is so self-defeating and somewhat insulting to your own efforts. There's really no need to diminish what you have managed to accomplish with a petty qualifier like 'small' or 'tiny'. Sure, some people might want to distinguish accomplishments that might be life-changing from ones that are not, but come to think of it, all life accomplishments, no matter how small you perceive it, has to be life-changing in a way no?
I am not sure where I am going with this post, really, and this is most likely a stream of consciousness that I should have written down instead in my paper journal, not here, but consider this a publication outlier.
Anyways, my spirit is now aloft. I should think of new things to do this year and once I succeeded in doing them, I should stop, reflect, and revel in such accomplishments because nobody will do it for me, and nobody should, as self-fulfillment is what I strive for.
One of the countless stunning views of Kundasang and its vicinity from the top of Mt Kinabalu I was grateful to have been able to see from atop (safely). May 2025.