Why It’s Important to Celebrate Your Financial Wins
Your journey towards clarity and peace of mind about your money is not going to be linear. It will have twists and turns and ups and downs. These past few months, I’ve been working with a few clients who might describe their journeys as quite twisty and turny, maybe even a little more twisty and turny than they would like or would have expected since we started working together. Aside - do I sound like the author of the “Mr. Men” and “Little Miss” books here or is it just me (if you know, you know)?
My clients are navigating job loss, illness, injury, spouses being away and other such things that have all played leading roles in their journeys. When we catch up for our coaching calls, they have expressed frustration and disappointed with the pace of their progress. Of course, their feelings are valid and understandable. Nobody sets off on a journey to improve their relationship with money with the expectation or intent that things will be quite so so twisty and turny. I often find myself reassuring them that their progress is normal and that it is in fact linear progress that is not normal. These conversations do help them feel a bit better but there is another approach that tends to blow the “don’t worry this is normal” conversation out of the water. That is celebrating financial wins.
Celebrating your financial wins doesn’t mean throwing an over-the-top party with confetti falling from the ceiling at the slightest thing. What I mean by celebrating financial wins is taking a moment to pause and recognize something that you’ve done to make a difference in your trajectory. Did you log into YNAB for two days in a row when your regular pattern had been a weekly catch up? Awesome. Did you and your spouse sit down and have a serious conversation about your financial future? Excellent. Did you avoid an impulse purchase? Super. Did you manage to not incur more credit card debt even though you lost your job? That is amazing!
Celebrating your financial wins reminds you that what you’re doing is working. And that motivation is what keeps you moving forward, even when progress feels slow. Think of it like exercise: if you only focus on the ultimate goal (running a marathon or lifting a certain weight), you might get discouraged. But if you celebrate each time you run a little farther or lift a little heavier, you’ll be more likely to stay committed. Your financial journey works the same way.
Celebrating your financial wins can also shift your mindset from scarcity to abundance. Many people feel like they’re constantly behind financially and always playing catch-up. This scarcity mindset can make it hard to recognize the real progress being made. But when you intentionally focus on your wins, you train your brain to actually see the financial growth. For example, let’s say you’ve had a tough few months—maybe you lost a job or had unexpected expenses. It’s easy to feel defeated. But what if, despite those challenges, you managed to avoid taking on new debt? What if you successfully adjusted your budget and covered your essentials? Those are wins worth celebrating. They show resilience and financial awareness, which are just as important as the numbers in your bank account.
Celebrating your financial wins provides proof of progress. When you’re in the middle of your financial journey, it’s easy to feel like you’re standing still. But when you step back and look at where you were six months or a year ago, you’ll often see just how far you’ve come. Maybe you’ve built an emergency fund, cut down on unnecessary subscriptions, or gotten more confident using YNAB to plan your spending. Even if you’re not at your “final” goal yet, each of these steps is tangible proof that you’re making progress. And when you recognize that progress, you’ll be more likely to keep going.
Your financial journey isn’t about perfection—it’s about persistence. By taking the time to celebrate your wins you remind yourself that progress is happening, even when it doesn’t feel like it. So instead of focusing on how far you still have to go, take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve already come. Those small victories? They’re adding up to something big. Keep going - less Mr. Perfect and more Little Miss Brave.
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