In today's society, people tend to focus on the defeats and failures in their lives instead of the victories, however small, that occur every day. The word "victory" holds a lot of weight, and so we can't seem to connect that word to the little things in life. It makes sense when you're watching a basketball game that the team with the most points at the end is victorious, but it's harder to see that cleaning out the storage closet in your house can also be a victory.

Google defines the word victory as "an act of defeating an enemy or opponent in a battle, game, or other competition." So you can be victorious in a sporting event, in a political campaign, in a contest or a race. There are a lot of really easy examples. But then there are the less obvious examples, victories that are much harder to see.

Like cleaning out that storage closet. For someone who was a foster kid and never got to have more than a suitcase of possessions, cleaning out a closet would be incredibly difficult. So how can we say a team winning basketball is victorious, but not a person tackling years worth of baggage?

So many things can be classified as a victory. Losing 10 pounds, maybe, or climbing your first mountain, or learning how to drive a car well enough to pass the driver's test. There aren't obvious "enemies" in those examples, no clear "opponent," but that doesn't mean they aren't victories. And then there are the even more obscure examples, like a person with depression surviving for another day without hurting themselves, or an alcoholic not drinking for a full 24 hours.

But if you look at Google's definition, it's easy to see why we can't comprehend those less obvious victories in our lives. I have a friend right now who's struggling really hard with these suicidal thoughts in her head, and she keeps telling me that as soon as the thought enters her head, she's already lost the battle. She gets wrapped up in these thoughts, so much so that it completely wrecks her for days at a time. Everywhere she looks she sees a way to kill herself. And she hates it, because although everyone else in the world would see her as suicidal, she's not. There's no doubt a small part of her that wants to escape her life, but she's told me time and again that she doesn't want to die. Those suicidal thoughts are frequent, sometimes constant, but more of her wants life than death.

So living through each day, for her... isn't that victory? I couldn't imagine looking at my surroundings and four, five, perhaps a dozen or more times a day thinking of all the ways I could end my life, and never once attempting it. That takes an incredible amount of strength. Way more strength than winning a basketball game. And maybe she's gotten closer to dying than she'd care to admit to anyone, but she's alive today. If that's not victory, someone please explain to me what is?

For those struggling in your every day life, please, look for your victories. And more than that, celebrate. You're alive today -- celebrate. You haven't had a drink in two weeks -- celebrate. You haven't fought with your spouse for an entire weekend -- celebrate! The more you celebrate what you've done right and what you've accomplished, the better your outlook on life is going to be. And one day -- I promise you this -- you're going to be at the end of the war and realize that you won. All those small victories, day after day, stack up into complete triumph.

So even if it doesn't make sense to anyone else, even if it doesn't seem like a win to others, please, celebrate it anyway. It doesn't have to seem important to anyone except you. You're the important person in your life story; you're the one that matters. So stop losing yourself in the places you've fallen, the mistakes you've made, or the defeats you've suffered. When you look back at that definition of victory, it's okay to realize that sometimes the "enemy" you have to conquer is yourself. Sometimes it's your brain chemistry, or your addictive behaviors, or your poor self-image, or your perceived lack of worth. Whatever it is, you can beat it. One small victory at a time.