Celebrate the Small Wins

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It’s human nature to want immediate results, especially with the instantaneous nature of new technology. But what do you do when you get frustrated because things are going too slow in your life? The first step is adjusting your mindset. Then celebrate the “small wins” as you make progress.

Our society has evolved more and more to expect instant gratification. We want information/success/results and we want them NOW! That can make it even harder to have patience with incremental progress.

We can know intellectually that something—like growing your business—takes time, but that doesn’t stop us from sometimes feeling discouragement or frustration when it actually does take a while.

Building a foundation for success in your Syntek business, relationships, personal growth, etc. doesn’t happen overnight. And we don’t want it to, because you learn a lot and grow as a person on the journey. Those times of trial and error and lessons prepare you for the success of the future, and they are as valuable as the end product. (See our related post on Chinese Bamboo Trees and Success.) It is important to create that strong foundation.

Having the right mindset is key, but there are things that you can do to combat frustration when progress feels slow. Professor Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer conducted research about the relationship between motivation and performance. They found that consistent progress in the form of “small wins” can boost people’s motivation and performance. (Information adapted from “Amabile and Kramer’s Progress Theory” on mindtools.com.)

When people consistently take steps forward – even small steps –they are more creative, productive, and engaged, and they have better relationships. In short, achieving and recognizing regular "small wins" helps people have rich, engaged, and productive work lives. While you are growing your business, rich, engaged, and productive work life is exactly what you want!

Amabile and Kramer identified six things that help us to experience and recognize progress. The system Syntek Global has in place for distributors already has these six elements.

1.    Set Clear Goals and Objectives - When people have unclear or changing goals, they don't know what to focus on. This means that they're likely to be less engaged with the work they're doing, and they're unlikely to see the small tasks that they do as "wins."

Make sure that you set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals for yourself. Your upline and team can help you know what goals are attainable within a certain time frame. Videos in the back office can also help you with this.

2.    Allow Autonomy - Although people need specific goals, they need some freedom to decide how they accomplish these goals – the more control that people have over their own work, the more empowered and creative they'll be, and the more they'll recognize their own achievements (even on small tasks).

The network marketing model is perfect for this. We provide direction, guidelines, and resources, but then distributors have autonomy in how they reach others and promote their business. We find that our distributors are creative and effective when allowed to be so.

3.    Provide Resources - Without sufficient resources in place, it will be difficult for your people to succeed consistently in their work.

The Back Office has a wealth of resources to help you succeed. There are documents that explain everything, pamphlets and marketing materials, videos, recordings of corporate calls, trainings, and programs to help you organize, track, and follow up with prospects.

4.    Allow Ample Time - People need enough time to complete their work: consistently setting short deadlines will harm creativity, drive down work quality, and cause burnout.

This is something only you can control. Give yourself ample time and realistic deadlines for your goals.

5.    Provide Support and Expertise – People need access to the help and expertise of others so that they can move forward with their work.

Network marketing automatically puts you in a team to help and support you. Your upline can share their experience and expertise. And if you want more team support than you are currently getting, there is a whole Syntek Global family that you can reach out to, or you can build your own team. Corporate is also there to help.

6.    Learn from “Failure” – No matter how well you plan and prepare, there will be times when people fail at tasks or projects. That’s just life.

However,“failure” is more a state of mind than an actual event. Failing is only failure if you quit. Otherwise it is a learning opportunity.


Incorporate these six elements to help you progress, and then—most importantly—recognize the small steps of your progress.

Syntek Global has a compensation plan and rank system built to give you benchmarks as your business grows. Celebrate those benchmarks! When you first start, celebrate when you become an official Distributor and you start working on your business. Celebrate how far you’ve come when you reach Pro, then Silver Pro, and so on.

As long as you are moving forward, you are making progress.

“Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still.” - Chinese Proverb