Welcome to the Infinitely Precious Podcast produced by Infinitely Precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Hello beloved, it's me James and I have some thoughts that I'd like to share with you today about tiny victories. Oftentimes when I'm facing challenging moments in my life, the difficulties seem to overwhelm me. I talked about just in Tuesday's podcast about overwhelm. How do we overcome overwhelm? And part of what flows from that very same podcast for me is the opportunities in our lives to celebrate the tiny victories.

Sometimes it feels like we're not moving at all. We're not finding a way forward that we're stuck. And because we feel that kind of stuckness, it becomes uncertain to us that we're moving at all. And in the midst of that, we can begin to feel defeated by the challenges we're facing. And some of the big ones are going to overwhelm us and we might not be able to successfully complete them at this moment.

And it's in moments like that that I try to be attentive to the tiny victories that I'm able to achieve or receive. Let me say a little bit more about what I mean by that. Sometimes there is a daunting task that lies in front of me. I've broken it down like I suggested on Tuesday's podcast. I've broken it down.

I've taken it one item at a time. And yet, it still feels like at the end of the day, there are still more tasks to do than I could ever complete. And it's important in moments like that for me to look at those tasks I have been able to complete. And sometimes it's not even tasks. Sometimes when we are weighed down by an emotional weight, grief, sadness, we can celebrate that we were able to wake up and get out of bed this morning, perhaps fix even a simple breakfast for ourselves, perhaps even to imagine that we could move forward one step at a time and each one of those steps in themselves a victory.

This may seem menial to you, may seem small, and it may seem small to me at times. I'm like talking to myself. And, you know, self talk, we've talked about that before. My self talk tells me that I'm not making very fast progress, that I'm not moving as quickly as I had hoped, but I am moving. I have put one foot in front of the other, have made one step.

Now, sometimes we're going to make great strides, but other days we need to celebrate that we got out of bed, that we made that one step, that we were able to kind of go through the motions of the day. It becomes very easy for us sometimes, very easy for us to sometimes think that not moving quickly is not moving at all and that in itself is a mistake. We need to give ourselves credit. I don't want us to be patting ourselves on the back every time we do the simplest thing, we showed up, But sometimes showing up when we're under heavy stress, deep sadness, grief and those things, showing up itself is a success. Maybe showing up on your best day is not a success, not a big deal.

But on your worst days, showing up is worth celebrating. The fact that you appeared, that you did make the effort to be there even if your being there is not what you think of as your best being there. And that's the hard thing I think for all of us is we have set up sometimes unrealistic expectations of what victory in our lives looks like. And victory is a victory imagines its opposite, defeat. To even use the word victory is to imagine that there is a defeat.

And I suppose there are ways in which sometimes we allow for life to defeat us. But in our greatest struggles, when we have overestimated for ourselves what victory, what succeeding in today will look like, then we're naturally not going to make it. We're going to fail. We're going to fail. But if instead of couching it as a failure, if it's seeing that today's best is not your best best, it's today's best.

The tiny victory was I did those small things today and they may have seemed very small to you, and they may to someone else seem so insignificant as to not even count, but only you know what you've got to put in today. Only you know how much energy you have for today. How bereft of spirit you may feel today. Only you can know whether or not today has been a success. Only you can know if you've made steps forward and even if they were tiny steps they were steps.

In some ways it feels like I'm arguing in a circle and it's not really an argument. The fact is some days are not like other days. No two days are alike and it is worth celebrating on your most challenging days the little victories that you had, the little steps that you took. On your best day, it might not be enough to celebrate those things but on your worst days and you know those days, you know those days, Stop, catch your breath, recognize that the fact you're even catching your breath is itself a tiny victory and that victory is worth celebrating. So every day is different.

Every step forward, whether it's a great stride or a small one, is in itself a movement. If you are able to bring yourself to the moment you're in and look at what you're bringing to that moment right now, On a day when you're drained of energy, on a day when you feel broken by the world, on a day when you are weighed down by sadness or grief, to have made the steps that you made if you're honest with yourself, is a victory. Can you celebrate your victories? Can you recognize that on your worst day showing up at all is itself a victory? Can you see the gift that you are and that you are indeed doing your best, giving your best, trying your hardest on hard days.

And if you can with honesty reflect on those tough days when it's hard to see anything good, when it's hard to do anything but have negative self talk, if you can on those days see the gift that you are and see the tiny victories that you've made as tiny as they may seem, then perhaps you will also see that you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are. And that the gift you already are in being that gift, some days the gift looks different than other days and it's okay. It's okay. To the tiny victories in your life, I wish you great success and I wish you great hope and I wish you all the best on your best days and on your worst days and perhaps every one of the days in between. Until the next time we see one another, all the best.