This is How Small Wins Add Up to Big Accomplishments!

It all started with a fire hydrant! And I’m not talking about a dog ‘doing it’s business’ on one to mark its territory!

I’m talking about the story of Jim Cotter.

Having lost his beloved wife the previous year, Cotter of Glouster, Ohio, needed something to occupy him to keep him from missing her more. So, he decided to paint his town…the whole town!

You see, the community of 2,000 people which was at one time a thriving coal community had been peeling and thus becoming unappealing for years. All the while Cotter had been hoping someone would fix it up. Well, now that his wife had passed on, he decided to be that person!

He decided to start small by painting a fire hydrant which gave him the first of his small wins. Next, he moved down the road to a guardrail, it was at that point that he hit his stride. Soon enough he moved from house to house and from business to business – all free of charge.

Pretty soon volunteers started coming out of the woodwork to help Cotter achieve his goal!

Cotter’s Story Shows the Power of Small Wins

As Charles Duhigg says in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business:

“A huge body of research has shown that small wins have enormous power, an influence disproportionate to the accomplishments of the victories themselves. “Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage,” one Cornell professor wrote in 1984. “Once a small win has been accomplished, forces are set in motion that favor another small win.” Small wins fuel transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach.” ¹

To me, the key is the last sentence – “Small wins fuel transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach.”  We have all at one point in our lives had some type of grandiose goal or plan that never got off the ground simply because it was too big, too complex, or it took too long.

Small Wins = Reachable Goals

However, if a goal or task is smaller, we are more likely to get started on it. And once we get started, a small win gives us momentum and affirms our belief that we can do it!

In a 2011 article in the Harvard Business Review called “The Power of Small Wins”, authors Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer concluded that “Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work,” ²

This just shows that a little bit of progress, mere small wins, can make a huge difference in how people feel and perform – being less disappointed and more motivated.  These ‘baby steps’ help us focus on the present and these seemingly small and insignificant progressions add up to big things over time.

Minimum Viable Progress

So, rather than starting big and flaming out and thus wasting time and energy, we are better off starting small and building some momentum. As we accumulate small wins, we can use that momentum to work towards more small wins until we achieve a significant breakthrough. By taking small steps, it won’t even seem like we are making much effort and our big goal will be achieved before we realize it.

In his great book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, author Greg McKeown discusses a concept called Minimum Viable Progress. It is related to a concept used in Silicon Valley called ‘Minimum Viable Product’. The idea behind minimum viable product is to create the simplest product that will be useful and valuable to the consumer without wasting time on non-essentials.

The idea behind minimum viable progress is similar, as McKeown says:

“Instead of starting big and then flaring out with nothing to show for it other than time and energy wasted, to really get essential things done we need to start small and build momentum. Then we can use that momentum to work toward the next win, and the next one and so on until we have a significant breakthrough—and when we do, our progress will have become so frictionless and effortless that the breakthrough will seem like overnight success.” ³

Some Examples of Small Wins

We can all achieve small wins in many areas of our lives that can set the tone for big wins over time.  Some examples include:

  Instead of trying to lose 100 lbs., just make an effort to get to the gym 3 times per week.

  Rather than hitting the snooze bar, get up as soon as your alarm goes off.

  Strike up a conversation with a new person every day.

  Read 10 pages in a book.

  Get to bed at a decent time – sleep is important!

 How to Cultivate a Mindset for Small Wins

There are a couple of ways we can cultivate a mindset for small wins:

(1)  Keep a Journal or Daily Accomplishments List

The idea is to write down everything you have done or accomplished on a daily basis to help you accumulate a record of your small wins. For example, I recently went back to my diary and realized I have written over 270 blog posts in the last year. I almost fell out of my chair because it doesn’t seem possible to me, but it just shows how small wins can add up over time.

As Amabile and Kramer advise in their book The Progress Principle: “Keeping a journal focused on progress and setbacks will help you in many ways. It will remind you to celebrate successes. It will help you to attend to the setbacks and deal with them quickly. And it will make you aware of what is working and what is not, and can help you spot patterns to reinforce or dampen.” ⁴

(2)  Acknowledge and celebrate small wins

When you hit a milestone or achieve a small improvement, don’t simply breeze past it. Instead, take some time to reflect on your successes and celebrate them.

Oh, One More Thing!

After the story about Jim Cotter first aired on television, people were so impressed and inspired that many of them started to make pilgrimages to Glouster, Ohio…from OTHER STATES!!!

They all wanted to be part of helping Cotter reach his ultimate goal.

As Cotter said: “You just have to get off your rear end and get it done…Don’t wait on the government. Don’t wait on a grant. And don’t wait on money. You’ve got to do it. And that’s the key.”

And to think it all started with a man marking his territory with a fire hydrant!

Until next time, keep chasing those small wins and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

Use it Or Lose It

To cultivate a mindset for small wins:

(1)  Keep a journal or daily accomplishments list
(2)  Acknowledge and celebrate small wins.

When to Use It

Use the concept of small wins to make progress on relevant goals or initiatives in your life.

What Do You Think?

Have you used the concept of small wins in your life with success? Do you have any great examples? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

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References

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-widower-paints-the-town-to-make-it-a-brighter-place-10-08-2012/

1 The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

2 Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, “The Power of Small Wins,” Harvard Business Review, May 2011, http://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins/.

3 Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

4 The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer