[Compounded Effect of Small Wins]

In 2009, I participated in my University Freshman Orientation Camp. I met many interesting characters and I’m grateful that I still keep in contact with some of them. (You know who you are 😉).

Part of the Freshman Orientation Camp is playing games in teams to outwit, outplay and outlast (*insert survivor music). Our group called Deathnote was off to a flying start. We were winning games and defeating the other teams easily. I felt a sense of pride as we kept winning. However, things changed when we started to lose our first game. As a team, we started to strategise and we continue to win the other games too. We were so focused on winning that our Group Leader, Teo Jiaqi asked us.

Why you all look so unhappy ah?
(Why is everyone looking unhappy?)

It was already night time. We looked at each other and had a HTHT (heart to heart talk) conversation. We realised that we had a mindset of “Okay. what’s next?” when we win. Our wins were meaningless but our losses were painful. We dwell on the losses but we didn’t celebrate our wins. That was a recipe for misery. We promised ourselves that we will celebrate our wins no matter how small it is the very next day.

The next day came and we won the first game. In a very awkward way, we tried to celebrate. The first “Yay” was full of awkwardness, confusion but yet funny. As we progress more into the other games, the “Yay” became more authentic, passionate and joyful. When the whole camp was over, we all agreed that we enjoyed ourselves. I’m grateful to the seniors and my group for making that possible.

In life, we probably had times where we chose not to celebrate the small wins. I’m an example of that.

“Aiya. Like that also need to celebrate”

“It is something minor leh.”

“After we finish this, then we celebrate”

I am certainly guilty of not celebrating the small wins and because of that, after everything was finished, the joy was small. I didn’t allow the small wins to compound.

I wish I knew this earlier. Life would have been more joyful. Nevertheless, it is not too late to start now.

Celebrate your small wins. Allow your joy to compound. Wishing you the best!

“Yay! My website is officially 1 year old!”

#wealthmanagement #wealthdojo #1yearold #makingwisefinancialdecisions

PS: I’m grateful for those of you who have visited my blog, read it and told me how much you enjoyed it. “Yay”