Chad Silverstein argues that life blurs past unless you deliberately notice small wins. He points to workplace examples like employee referrals and marriages as signs of a culture people actually love, and urges you to pause and recognize what brings you joy.
Chapters
Life goes so fast. We run so fast. We go from one activity to the next. Our calendars are booked up. We've got emails and flooding our inbox. And if you don't stop and slow down, you miss a lot. And then you look back and you're like, man, time went fast. And then you look back further and you don't remember much except for, like, glimpses of time. And so when you can find little wins in your day, little wins in your life, you got to be able to celebrate those wins, and you got to find the ones that are so meaningful to you that they stop you in your tracks so that you could just pause and smile and be grateful for it. And it's hard to do because you. You purposely have to, like, think about this, and you have to mind for it, meaning you have to look for it. You have to look for it to show up, because if they're small, sometimes, again, you can just gloss right over them and just kind of chalk it up to, you know, check mark, move on. And if you're distracted, you may not even notice it. And I think it's really important that you have these things because they really. They really make a difference when they compound and you look back at them and they. They make you smile, they make you feel good. And that's what having some gratitude is all about. You know, one of the things for me, that always made me feel really good, and I just. Anytime it happened, I just thought it was so cool, even though I didn't like it to happen, because. And you'll understand, but when it happened, it made me feel so good. It was when employees wanted me to hire someone in their family. I just thought that was such a cool little scorecard win. It was like I could be happy with the fact that they love the place so much that they want their kid to work here, they want their sister or their brother to work here, their husband. And that's very uncommon. Most people don't want to work with their family members, but they felt that they could do it. They felt it could work. And they felt good enough about working at a collection agency that they could refer a family member to come in. And I had everything from spouses to kids. We had kids join us in filthy practices. And we had all kinds of relationships. I had two people get married that were employees. And early in my career, I always thought, no way. I don't want that. You shouldn't mix it. But, you know, when you can create a culture that people fall in love with, that people love the people that they're working with, and they love it so much that they bring the people they love into it. You know, it doesn't always go perfect, but for me, that was something I was always grateful for, that I could create a culture that people wanted to have their families working there. And I just think that that's. That was a big win for me. So, like, think about in your life what those little things that come up that when they happen, they make you stop and pause and just be happy with whatever it is that you're doing. It's really important to recognize all the small wins and to celebrate those wins. Even if it's just internal. You can't. You can't just always be busy and you can't always be looking to do the next thing you know, thinking ahead about everything that's going to happen, thinking about what has happened. It doesn't leave you any room to actually be here, right here, right now. So think about right now, like what. What brings you joy, what makes you smile and make it a point to recognize it the next time you have something close to it or it in your life and be grateful for it. It's important to have those.
