Celebrating the wins no one sees
Champagne is always a good idea
Last week, I received a response to an email I honestly wasn’t sure would ever come. It wasn’t the message itself that caught me off guard—it was the fact that this person finally replied. My immediate reaction? I ran into my husband’s office and shouted, “Guess who emailed me back?!” and proceeded to do a small (but mighty) victory dance.
Now, if your first thought is, “Wow, that took long enough” or “That’s kind of rude,” I get it. But here’s the truth: sometimes it takes multiple attempts. Sometimes we reach out again, and again, and again. And when the reply does come, even after silence? That’s a win. And it deserves celebration.
I didn’t always think this way. For a long stretch of my career, I moved through life on autopilot—one task to the next, one achievement to the next—without pausing to acknowledge any of it. I had convinced myself that “real success” needed to be some monumental, defining moment.
It wasn’t until those milestones started to feel empty that I realized the problem: I was measuring success through everyone but myself.
In the Rooted Leadership program, there’s a module called Charting Your Course. It’s about taking inventory of your life—your pivots, your risks, your resilience. When I did this for myself, I saw it clearly: I had been overlooking the very moments that proved my strength. The hard conversations I survived. The chances I took. The small, quiet wins that no one knew about but me.
And I had to remind myself—stop being so damn hard on yourself. Just stop.
Which brings me back to that email. If I wait only for the big, flashy moments to celebrate—the ones everyone else deems important—I could spend a lifetime waiting. And who wants to do that?
So here’s your reminder:
Celebrate the reply you weren’t sure you’d get.
Celebrate the courage to follow up.
Celebrate your own persistence.
What small win are you celebrating this week?
Take time to celebrate the wins no one sees…