Celebrating Small Wins on the Big Journey
This week I received the news that I passed my comprehensive exam for my doctoral work at Lehigh University. For anyone who has been through this process, you know how significant this moment is. It is one of those milestones that feels like a mountain standing in front of you, and the only way to get through it is one step at a time.
The journey has not been easy. Balancing leadership at school with the demands of doctoral work often felt impossible. There were days when I questioned if I could keep going. There were nights of rewriting, rereading, and revising until my eyes blurred. And there were plenty of moments when the weight of it all pressed down heavy.
Yet what I have learned in both leadership and doctoral work is that resilience is not about never struggling. Resilience is about taking the next step even when it feels hard. It is about pausing when you need to, but not stopping altogether. It is about reminding yourself that progress comes in pieces, not all at once.
Celebrating small wins along the way is part of what makes the big journey possible. The paper finished. The chapter read. The exam submitted. Each step matters. Too often we wait until the final goal is reached to celebrate, but joy comes when we honor the progress along the way.
Passing my comprehensive exam is a moment of joy and relief, but more than that, it is proof that perseverance pays off. The path is still long, but each milestone is worth noticing.
This lesson matters in schools too. Principals, teachers, and students are often climbing their own mountains. The work can feel endless and overwhelming, but progress comes in the small steps. When leaders celebrate those steps — a class that found its rhythm, a student who grew in confidence, a teacher who tried something new — the whole community is reminded that the journey is worth it.
For anyone else facing a challenge that feels too big, my reminder is simple: take the next step. Celebrate the small wins. Keep moving forward. The reward is not just the achievement at the end, but the strength you build on the way there.
