Celebrate the Step: What a Diary Study of 12,000 Workdays Says About Small Wins

Wickedly Branded® is a brand evolution strategy and authority positioning firm for established women entrepreneurs. Founder Beverly Cornell draws on research cited in her book, Wickedly Branded®, to explain the patterns she sees in her clients and in her own business.

Why should women business owners celebrate small wins? In a study of nearly 12,000 daily diary entries from 238 professionals at seven companies, making progress in meaningful work, even a small win, was the strongest lift to people’s emotions and motivation on a workday (Amabile & Kramer, 2011). Celebrating the step keeps the next one within reach.

I used to save every celebration for the finish line

For most of my career, I treated celebration like dessert. You earned it at the end, after the launch, the signed contract, or the finished book. Until then, the right move was the next item on the list.

The trouble is that the finish line keeps moving. I wrote about that in the Vanishing Finish Line: the thrill of a goal fades quickly once it turns into ordinary life. If celebration only happens at the end, it barely happens at all.

So I changed the rule. My book publishes on October 23, and I am throwing it a birthday party. I planned that party months before the book was finished, because I wanted the celebration decided before the work tried to talk me out of it.

What did the research find?

Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, and developmental psychologist Steven Kramer asked 238 professionals on project teams at seven companies to write a short diary entry at the end of every workday. Together they produced nearly 12,000 entries (Amabile & Kramer, 2011).

When the researchers looked at which events lifted people’s emotions, motivation, and view of their work, one stood out: progress in meaningful work. The progress did not have to be big. Small wins counted, and small events of all kinds carried more weight than people expected.

The study found a second pattern that interests me just as much. Setbacks hit harder than progress lifted. A frustrating day weighed on people more than a good day raised them.

What it changed for me: I stopped waiting for a big result before I let myself feel any momentum. In the book I call that push winertia, the way one small win makes the next step easier to take.

What counts as a small win for a business owner?

A small win is any forward step on work you care about. In my own business and with clients, they look like this:

• A sentence on your sales page that finally says what you do.
• A client who renews without a pitch.
• A no you sent without three paragraphs of apology.
• A podcast pitch you sent instead of rereading it again.
• A process your team ran without you in the room.

None of these would make a press release. Each one is evidence that the work is moving.

How do you celebrate the step?

1. Name it the same day. Write one line about what moved forward. Specific beats impressive. “Sent the proposal I avoided for two weeks” counts.
2. Keep a Glimmer jar. A Glimmer is a small, specific piece of evidence that your magic is working. Drop each one into a jar, a notes app, or a folder. On a hard day, you will have proof in your own handwriting. More in Collect Your Glimmers.
3. Decide the celebration before you reach the goal. Pick the dinner, the walk, or the party while the goal is still ahead of you. A celebration on the plan is harder to skip.
4. Tell one person. A win shared with someone who cares turns into a memory instead of a checkbox.
5. Clear one obstacle. Because setbacks weigh more than wins, removing one daily snag can protect your momentum as much as adding a new goal.

What can’t this research tell you?

The people in this study were employees on creative project teams inside companies, not business owners running their own firms. The diaries captured how people felt and what they did on a given day. They cannot tell you which goal is yours or how big your next step should be.

What the study does show is a pattern across thousands of real workdays: people feel more motivated and more creative on days they make progress. That is a strong reason to stop treating your progress as invisible.

What’s your next Brave Step?

Write down three wins from this week. Small ones count. Tiny ones might count the most. Then tell one person about the one you are proudest of.

Keep going with the book

This idea comes from my book, Wickedly Branded®: Claim Your Voice, Visibility, and Authority in a World Not Built for Women. It publishes October 23, 2026, and you can order your copy today. The book’s companion resources live in the Reader Companion.

And if you would like some data on your own brand, the free Brand Magic Lens compares how you see your brand with what your website and LinkedIn communicate.

Frequently asked questions

What is the progress principle?

The progress principle is the finding by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer that making progress in meaningful work, even a small win, is the most powerful lift to people’s emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday. It comes from nearly 12,000 diary entries from 238 professionals at seven companies (Amabile & Kramer, 2011).

Do small wins really improve motivation?

In Amabile and Kramer’s diary research, progress, including small wins, was the event most closely tied to positive emotions and strong motivation on a workday. Setbacks had an even larger effect in the other direction.

How can a business owner track small wins?

Write one line each day about what moved forward, keep the lines together in one place, and reread them on hard days. Beverly Cornell calls these Glimmers and keeps them in a Glimmer jar. More in Collect Your Glimmers.

What is winertia?

Winertia is a word Beverly Cornell coined in her book, Wickedly Branded®. It blends “wins” and “inertia” to describe how one small win makes the next step easier to take.

Sources

Amabile, T., & Kramer, S. (2011). The progress principle: Using small wins to ignite joy, engagement, and creativity at work. Harvard Business Review Press.

Brickman, P., & Campbell, D. T. (1971). Hedonic relativism and planning the good society. In M. Appley (Ed.), Adaptation-level theory (pp. 287–302). Academic Press.

Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist, 61(4), 305–314. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.61.4.305

About the author

Beverly Cornell is the founder and CEO of Wickedly Branded®, a brand evolution strategy and authority positioning firm for established women consultants, coaches, and creatives. She spent fifteen years building brands for Fortune 500 companies and tech startups before founding her own firm in 2011, and she brings nearly thirty years of marketing experience to her clients.

Beverly hosts the podcast Marketing, Magic, and the Messy Middle: Wickedly Branded® and speaks to women entrepreneurs about branding, visibility, and authority. She is the author of Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Wickedly Branded®: Claim Your Voice, Visibility, and Authority in a World Not Built for Women.