Celebrating Small Wins With Someone You Support

During a hard period, small wins can go unnoticed, both by the person experiencing them and by the people around them. Actively noticing and celebrating these moments, a good night's sleep, a hard conversation had, can reinforce that progress is happening. This is a reasonable, worthwhile thing to try, whatever else is happening at the time.

This does not need to be a big gesture. A simple, genuine comment, that took real courage, or I am proud of you for that, can carry real weight, particularly when it comes at a moment the person did not expect to be noticed. This is true whether the difficulty has just begun or has lingered for a long time.

Beyond Blue offers support alongside these small moments of progress on 1300 22 4636, and Lifeline is available at any hour on 13 11 14. None of this requires getting everything right on the first attempt. Small, imperfect steps still count as genuine progress. This applies just as much on an ordinary day as during an obvious crisis.