Why Acknowledging Wins Changes Everything

Do you skip over your successes and focus only on what’s next or what didn’t go right?

Many of us do, but this habit can steal the joy and momentum we need to move forward.

In this episode, I share a simple practice: starting the year by reflecting on your wins—big or small, personal or professional. This exercise can shift your mindset, help you see the progress you’ve overlooked, and reenergize you for what’s ahead.

Celebrating wins isn’t just for you; it’s a leadership tool. Sharing victories with your team creates connection, value, and motivation. It reminds everyone—including you—that progress matters, even in tough times.

Take a few minutes to stop and acknowledge what you’ve accomplished. This episode will show you how this small habit can change how you lead, live, and start your year.

**🎧 **Click here to listen now!

Resources:

• Want to increase your profitability? Grab my book “The Profit Bleed.“
• Looking to grow your construction business? Check out our exclusive group "The Contractors Collective.”
• Want employees to take more ownership? Check out our course - “Build Your Dream Team.”
• Are you struggling to hire the right people? Check out our “Contractors Hiring Blueprint” course.

Connect with Vicki on social media:

• YouTube: Vicki Suiter
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickisuiter
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuiterBusinessBuilders

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Transcript

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welcome back to the profit Builder unscripted today we're talking about how do you pause and acknowledge and celebrate what are the wins in your life for this past year and in this video I'm going to share with you some tips for being able to do that both for your business and for your life in general okay let's jump in one of the things I notice about myself and maybe you can relate to this and I see this a lot of times with the people that I work with as well is that when we've accomplished something when we especially like at the end of the year like we look at like okay what is it that I need to do next what's the next Hill I need to sit like what's the next thing I'm I want to do or what did I not do well that I need to do better at as opposed to stopping and really acknowledging and appreciating the wins and what we've accomplished and one of the things that started many years ago with my clients is that at the beginning of every year the first meeting that we have part of that meeting is dedicated just to Simply stopping and answering the question what were your wins for the previous year like what are the like and it's and it could be Financial it could be personal it could be relational it could be in terms of strategy thinking development personal business development whatever it is but just stopping and really going through the their life and their business and asking the question what were your wins for the previous year and I love doing this exercise because it's always so fun to like when you know someone they they'll come up with some things and then I'll say well what else and then they'll come up with some more things and I'm like well what else what about this area of business what about that area and because I know them and I know their business sometimes I can you know prompt and give them suggestions um but it's it's a really lovely exercise and what I find time and again and I find this also for myself when I do it is that first of all sometimes we tend to overlook what we do get accomplished even if it's not been a great year for you financially or whatever there's probably things that you have done to take the next Hill or to or or just WIS um and so what I find is that it's usually like sort of a nice little surprise when people really stop and think about it it's like oh wow I really did accomplish a lot this year and it's an opportunity also to like stop and and slow down and just acknowledge yourself uh I love that part of it too because it just it it is a way of celebrating what have I accomplished where have I come to at this point what have I you know where have I grown personally where have I gone professionally how is my business done how are my relationships you know how's my finances whatever all those areas I encourage you to look at all the areas of your life personal professional relational Financial uh maybe it's systems maybe it's processes maybe it's people that you've hired right like look at all the different parts of your business and ask yourself what have been some wins this year and they don't have to be significant they don't have to be dramatic it could just be even the smallest things and I think what you're going to find when you do this is that um it's just a really like it just gives you an opportunity to really appreciate yourself and to appreciate where you've come to in this year even in the face of there's probably goals that you set that you didn't accomplish things that you did that you're not proud of things that you would have wanted to happen that didn't happen that's okay like all of that is true also but if we just skip over the winds it's not really taking that opportunity to acknowledge the ground that we've taken and acknowledge the growth that we've had and the other thing that I encourage people to do is to share it with their team um and to share with their team anything of course you you know sometimes people don't want to share the personal stuff but like business-wise or if it is personal stuff share it with your spouse your kids or you know your family your friends um that it's a really lovely way of having the people around you also see where there may be um WIS for them or growth for them particularly your team like a lot of times it's you know there was a job that went bad went South or there wasn't as much work as you wanted or there were mistakes made or whatever because that tends to be what we do is we focus on what we didn't do what we're not good at what we didn't do enough of blah blah right like that and it's so um affirming when we can feel like what we're doing is making traction and that there are good things that happen and so your opportunity as a leader is to be the one to take the lead in Sharing what it is that we're the win for the previous year uh I I hear a lot of great things back from clients about uh how how appreciative their team was and what a great opportunity it was for them to all kind of like because what they also do is besides the lead you know whoever the owner is or if it's the leadership team sharing all right like here's where what we saw were wins but they actually go around with their team as well and say what was a win for you this year uh personally and professionally it's so great um it's such a great way for people to feel that sense of uh acknowledgement that sense of value contribution belonging and mattering and I'm going to say that again because it's so important for us to remember as leaders that no matter who's on our team who's working for us no matter what it is that they do that fundamentally as human beings we all want to have that sense of contribution value belonging and mattering and when we can put mindfulness to paying attention to that bringing it to the Forefront with the people who work for us or even just making sure that it's in the background for us as we're looking at developing our team growing our team coaching training them um building them up to their next level of greatness is to keep in mind that fundamentally in the midst of people make mistakes people screw up people don't do what they say they're going to do so on and so forth like to keep that in mind that fundamentally we all want to do a good job and we all want to have some sense of contribution value belonging and mattering and there are some people who work for you who who haven't had a lot of that um in their life and you are the person who can give them the opportunity to have that experience that lets them feel seen seen and heard and like they matter so I highly encourage you to you know here it is it's January uh to do it to do this for yourself and do this with your team do this with your family uh do this with your spouse whoever your maybe it's your friend group right whatever um it is such a great way for us to have that also that sense of contribution value belonging and mattering like that sense of celebration for what did I get done what worked so I'm just going to say to you because I know that you've done some things this year that are awesome and I know that you've accomplished some great things this year so let me just be the first to say to you congratulations nice job nice job on all the stuff that you did get done nice job on the ground that you took ni nice job on the places where you had courage to do something that was uncomfortable and you did it anyway nice job job putting yourself out there whatever it was right and maybe it's nice job you did amazing in terms of your financials or nice job in repairing that relationship or having that hard conversation I know that you've done great things this year and things worth celebrating so I'm going to encourage you to write them down and this isn't just a internal in between your two ears exercise literally write them down and then if there's somebody else that you want to share it with go share it all right until next time thanks again for being here thank you for U being part of this community and I'll see you next time on the prophit Builder unscripted