Last week was about embracing the grimy path to success.  This week is about failed rope climbs, conquered warped walls, and celebrating progress and small wins.

I failed the warped wall 3 times at Frontline OCR back in May, which resulted in some nasty friction burns on my leg.  With that in mind, I came into the recent Midwest OCR looking for redemption.  The first obstacle I ran into was the rope climb.  I did not complete this obstacle.  HOWEVER, I’m so excited, because for the first time in my life, I actually hooked my feet correctly.  I got further than I’ve ever made it.  Then, when I got to the warped wall, I finally beat that thing!  I latched onto the rope and knew I wasn’t letting go until I had finished climbing the wall.  I had so much adrenaline running through my body after completing the wall that I thought I might pass out.

What does this have to do with anything?  It would have been easy for me to call my race a failure.  I failed obstacles.  I was slower than I wanted to be.  I didn’t win.  However, I view it a success because of the progress and small wins I had.  Now think about work for a minute.  How often do you pause to celebrate progress and small wins?  Be honest.  If you’re anything like me, it’s so easy to get focused on the end goal with a win/lose mentality that I don’t pause at work.  Then, I find myself feeling stuck or like a failure, all because I haven’t opened my eyes to the progress that has been made.  Does this sound familiar to anyone else?  It doesn’t have to be this way.  We can all be celebrating small wins on a more regular basis.

The challenge: How will you ensure you are celebrating progress and small wins along the way?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry