Victory Lap
In our drive to accomplish enough, we might not notice when we’ve achieved something remarkable and simply move on to the next item on our list. Our lists are lengthy, and our days are short, so we constantly feel overloaded and never clear the decks enough to relax. Aiming high is fine, but it’s also important to know when to slow down, stop, and savor a moment. Merely moving on from one task to the next diminishes our experience and devalues our accomplishments. We benefit from pausing the race to take a victory lap, smile, and enjoy a feeling of satisfaction at what we’ve done.
If doing so is difficult for us, it might help us to try and figure out why. Why do we move on without pause, forever on the treadmill? Perhaps we have our reasons – financial security, demands from others, a need to affirm our own self-worth through accomplishments, or something else. But we might also recognize that we have a choice in how to frame things, and that it might help us lead successful and more satisfied lives if we can balance our drive to achieve with our desire to savor moments.
Celebrating small wins can actually help us achieve greater things. By breaking large problems into smaller ones, we can solve the pieces one at a time on the way to the complete solution. While our schedule might force us to transition quickly from one problem to the next, we can still take a moment, breathe, and recognize that completing the previous task is an accomplishment worth noting. We can pat ourselves on the back, reward ourselves in some way, or point out what we’ve done to someone else and get some external affirmation of our success.
At the same time, we shouldn’t confuse taking a victory lap with declaring victory. After all, our momentary respite does not make the rest of the list go away. In celebrating our success, we must not get complacent, or think we’re done and that the problem is solved. No matter what we’ve accomplished, or how many accolades we’ve received, there is always more to do, more challenges to overcome, and more lives to impact. Whether in war, medicine, business, or elsewhere, declaring victory too quickly can bring dire consequences.
We are at our best when we are humble and modest, appreciating ourselves and the moment while keeping things in perspective. Sir Isaac Newton was quoted as saying, “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Newton’s modesty reminds us to be humble and realize that our job is not yet done. But every now and then, we should still let ourselves get excited and pause to take victory lap.