Why I Track my wins and why you should too

When you're working toward big goals or making meaningful changes in your life, it’s easy to get lost in the long journey, doubting if you're even making any progress. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to get a new business off the ground, be able to lift more weights, or simply cultivate a 5-minute daily meditation practice.

Progress takes time

It can feel like you're spinning your wheels, no matter how hard you’re working. That’s why tracking your wins — even the small ones — is such a powerful tool for staying motivated and focused, and it is my favorite. Download my Wins Tracker Workbook here + Read on for more on why I love it.

In The Gap and the Gain, authors Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy explain how we often measure ourselves against the “ideal” we want to reach — the Gap — instead of looking back to see how far we’ve come — the Gain. This constant focus on what’s missing can make us feel like crap and like we’re not making any progress, even when we’re actually moving forward. By recording small wins, we’re shifting our focus to the Gain, which allows us to see, in real terms, that we’re getting closer to our goals every day.

Similarly, in Atomic Habits, James Clear highlights how tracking even the smallest progress reinforces habit formation, builds motivation, and makes it more likely that we’ll stay consistent. So that 1% daily improvement, just like money in the bank, compounds to a big effect over time.

For more recommended books, see my full Reading List here.

Why Tracking Wins Works: Shifting Your Focus to the GAIN

1. It Creates a Sense of Progress

If you’re only looking at where you want to go, it can feel overwhelming, and you may start doubting yourself. Maybe you’ve set a goal to build a successful freelance business or lose weight. At the beginning, it feels exciting, but when results don’t appear overnight, it’s easy to love motivation. Tracking your wins helps you see that you’re not standing still.

For example, let’s say you’re working toward a weight-loss goal. Maybe you opted for a salad instead of fast food, or you completed a workout when you didn’t feel like it. These small wins add up over time and become proof that you’re making progress, even if the scale doesn’t reflect your goal weight yet.

2. It Reinforces Positive Habits

Wins tracking supports habit-building by creating a positive feedback loop, which I learned from James Clear in Atomic Habits. When you track your wins, you’re effectively rewarding yourself for taking action, which helps reinforce that behavior. This could be as simple as keeping a daily record of wins in a journal or a streak sheet like the ones I include in my Wins Tracker Workbook. The more you see these wins pile up, the more motivated you’ll be to keep going.

Take a writer working on a novel, for instance. It’s easy to get discouraged when the finish line is a full book away. But if they track daily wins like writing 500 words they are moving toward the goal. Each win reinforces the habit of writing, which makes them more likely to sit down and write again tomorrow.

3. It Changes Your Self-Perception and Builds Confidence

Recording wins is not just about measuring progress; it’s about shaping your identity. When you regularly track wins, you start to identify as someone who takes action, someone who is capable of moving forward. This is especially powerful because big goals often require us to develop new skills or change our self-image.

4. It Keeps You Motivated When Progress is Invisible

Big, long-term goals rarely provide immediate rewards. You could be investing a lot of time and energy without seeing tangible results, and this can make it hard to stay motivated. By focusing on and tracking daily or weekly wins, you create smaller milestones to celebrate along the way.

In Conclusion

Tracking your wins helps you recognize progress that you might otherwise overlook, keeps you motivated, and builds a more positive self-image. The process of writing these victories, no matter how minor they seem, reinforces the idea that you’re on the right path.

This shift from focusing on the “gap” to the “gain” can make all the difference in how we perceive our progress.

So, no matter what you’re working toward, start tracking your wins today. It’s a simple, powerful way to build the momentum you need to reach your biggest goals