Everyone has overcome a challenge of some size. Everyone has faced a scuffle in which they came out on top. Maintaining a log of such triumphs can be invaluable on the days when the spirits of intrinsic motivation are not so easily conjured, or when the impediments before you appear insurmountable. It’s easy to stand awestruck at the difficult trial that lies before you. But it’s even easier to forget the many defeated obstacles that lie toppled behind you—silently laid out atop the ground that you have already won.

