There’s a wonderful short play titled “One Monkey, More or Less” by Rod McFadden in which one of the infinite monkeys trying to randomly type out Shakespeare wants to give up.  There’s a touching scene in the play where one of the monkeys sites his inability to complete a play, yet another monkey tries to encourage him by pointing out that the first monkey has randomly typed a Sonnet.  “But it’s not a play,” counters the first monkey, “it doesn’t count.” 

This made me sad.  So many times you see people give up on their goals when progress is being made, but the final outcome isn’t being achieved.  You must learn to celebrate the victories along the way.  I was talking to a speaker the other day who was telling me they’d had $50,000 worth of scheduled business cancel on them back in April.  They did admit that $30,000 of it had re-booked, but it wasn’t the full $50,000 so they didn’t feel as if they were reaching their goals. 

We’ve all seen the cartoon where a person is digging for diamonds and they give up, but we can see they’re an inch away from a huge diamond.  They can’t see it, they only see all the earth they’ve toiled through.  You never know when the next phone call, or the next email, or the time you reach out in any way will accomplish your goal.  Even if it doesn’t, celebrate that you made a call or sent an email that day!  You’re a step ahead of the person who didn’t. 

When I’m out for my evening walk and a jogger passes me I don’t get discouraged because I’m not keeping up their pace, I think to myself, “I’m doing better than the person just sitting on the couch!” 

So, celebrate your victories along the way to winning the war!  These days, everyone might be taking a little longer to get to their goals, so recognizing the steps achieved is even more important!