Saving Your Greatest Hits

Capturing wins and appreciation along the way

People probably appreciate you. They probably mention it from time to time, too. If you don’t already have a habit of saving those mentions of appreciation, now is the time to start!

Several years ago, I started to digitally save the wins that I experienced both in and out of work. This didn’t just include notes of appreciation, but other instances where I felt like capturing a moment worth revisiting later. Here are some examples with minor edits for privacy.

A screenshot of a tweet that reads 'Great. I will take a look. Btw - I often think of that story you told of the fisherman who was told by the business guy that he could really make a success of himself if he tried. That was transformational!' — Someone replying to a tweet of mine about books and then randomly mentioning something from a conference talk I gave years before

A screenshot of a message that reads 'Hey Erik! I just wanted to drop a note and say how grateful I am for your positivity and transparency during this crazy time. (And I love the mantra of 'clarity over comfort.') I have so much trust in the FL leadership team. Thanks for all you're doing.' The text is followed by a praying hands emoji. — A personal note someone sent me in Slack at work one day as we were navigating the early days of COVID impacts

A screenshot of a message that reads 'A little quote from the Art Director at redacted today. 'I've done a lot of team sprints exercise and the two we did today were by far the most well run and fruitful of any I've participated in.' — Some client feedback that was shared. I wasn’t involved with the project at all, but still felt a connection to the celebration as an owner

At Focus Lab, we record many of our meetings via Zoom. I have multiple small meeting clips in my Greatest Hits folder as well. It’s even better than written text because you get the tone, body language, etc.

A screenshot of the Drobox application showing Erik's Greatest Hits folder

I mentioned this idea on Facebook a little while back. I appreciated my sister’s response, so I wanted to share that here. She gives another example of what this can look like in practice.

I asked two friends for some feedback a few months ago and they sent it over via Voxer. After about a month I realized how much I treasured that feedback and didn’t want to lose it, so I recorded it on my phone so that I can play it back anytime I need to hear words that truly reflect who God created me to be versus who sometimes the world tells me I am.

This practice has been so meaningful to me over the years. It can be easy to get lost in the difficult times, the failures, the criticisms, etc. We have a Negativity Bias we must work against. Capturing moments like these is a valuable way to create a form of renewable energy in your work. This helps us fight against the reality that “we feel the sting of a rebuke more powerfully than we feel the joy of praise.”^[1]

Did you achieve something exciting? Capture a digital shot of that moment and save it to your Greatest Hits.

Did you perform well at something that can be captured digitally? (Via a video, image, etc.). Add it to your Greatest Hits.

Why? Because this life stuff is hard. And it’s helpful and energizing to remind yourself of the good in your past and present. Particularly if you’re not too sure about the future.

So what are some of your “Greatest Hits” moments from the recent past? I bet you’ve got some, even if you have to dig.

[1] https://www.verywellmind.com/negative-bias-4589618

Opening photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash

Published on May 13, 2021

Tags for this entry: mindset

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