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I'm most of the way through the book "Tiny Habits" by BJ Fogg. One of its "life hacks" is to unabashedly have a microcelebration - a fist pump, victory song, happy dance, whatever - when you accomplish a little something. (And another life hack the book is based on is to start with bite size, trivially-doable versions of more daunting tasks.)

It's meant as a form of self-programming; an example Fogg gives is, think of a baby's first steps. The parent's delight and happy feedback is such a strong and fundamental message for the baby to keep going, this is good. (The baby's certainly no track star yet!) And the same principle sticks with us as we age.

But it's easy to be skeptical, right? We're not babies! What if it's just a TINY accomplishment? Won't we just be goofuses, happy morons cheering ourselves on?

Like....OH NO! You mean we might seem happy and energized for No Good Reason? GASP! What an awful life THAT would be.

(I mean, if we can be feel blocked and procrastinatory for insufficient cause, and we have the ability, why NOT lean into the opposite for equally insufficient cause?)

I think the other fear, that easy celebration somehow demeans or diminishes our ability to rejoice when we tackle larger scale tasks, is a canard as well. Another part of us will still be able to discern when larger scale accomplishment has been made.

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Walking is a behavior that is repeated until it becomes second nature. And parents clap and cheer for their babies. This is a natural reaction from parents around the world, and it serves a purpose: Celebrating at the right moment helps their babies learn more quickly.