Behavioral Psychology

Be Happy With Your Progress

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What you see a lot with people who are making life changes, where they are working towards a difficult goal, is that they make significant progress but instead of praising themselves they get down on themselves for not being far enough along. If this happens to you, you’ve got to find a way to take a step back to see things  objectively. If some movement has indeed occurred be happy with your progress.

This doesn’t mean you have to become complacent. Actually the best way to insure a behavior continues in the future is positive reinforcement, and praising yourself, being happy that the work you have put in has led to real movement, is a textbook example of a positive reinforcement.

One of the biggest reasons why people quit their endeavors before achieving a successful outcome is that they can’t find a way to be joyful during the journey. When you are constantly down on yourself, discounting your work, making a bunch of comparisons where you find yourself coming up short, the whole process is like pulling teeth, it makes you feel bad, so it’s no wonder that you give up before long.

When you are working towards a goal, forget about where other people are or where you think you should be. As long as you are working hard and making progress, celebrate how far you have already come and remember that anything worthwhile takes a lot of time. You can’t just snap your fingers and get the result you want, regardless of what the infomercials and self-help books tell you. Your journey is yours and yours alone. Why not instill it with a sense of joy and positivity, celebrating all of your small successes along the way, thereby guaranteeing that you will feel really good instead of miserable during the period of time it takes to get you to where you ultimately want to be?

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