Taking stock of small achievements can keep you motivated when times are tough, experts say.
When I joined The New York Times as a columnist in 2022, I hadn’t worked in an office in over two decades. Before, I wrote freelance articles and books at home; my only co-worker was Tux, my tuxedo cat.
On my first day, I was shown to my cubicle and given a computer. Feigning confidence, I sat down, opened my laptop and found myself unable to log in. I tried again. I started to sweat. Then, I called our I.T. department. The person who answered volunteered to assist me over the phone.
“Please, no,” I whispered. “Everyone will hear me fumbling. Can’t I just come to you?”
I grabbed my computer and hurried upstairs, where a man named Adnan gently asked if I was OK. In his five years working at The Times, he told me, he had seen a lot of colleagues feeling overwhelmed.
So he shared something that he thought might help. He told me to imagine a jar and suggested that I add a metaphorical penny to it every time I achieved something — even a task as small as finding my way back to my desk.
Over time, he said, you will fill up the jar. You will see that you are moving forward, even when you don’t feel that you are, he added.
I still think about that jar, especially when I’m having a rough time. I still deposit “pennies.”
Tallying up victories, even little ones, can be motivating, said B.J. Fogg, the founder of the Behavioral Design Lab at Stanford University and the author of “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything.”