Bootcamp Spotlight: Why Small Wins Are the Fastest Way to Build Investing Confidence

Sound familiar?

You open the bootcamp, scan the checklist, feel motivated… and then immediately notice everything you haven’t done yet.

If you start the New Year’s bootcamp with a mix of excitement and “okay, this is stretching me,” you’re not alone.

The bootcamp is designed to take you from zero to real action. That means new words, new ideas, new habits - and most of you are layering that onto a very full life with a to-do list that never quite ends.

So let’s ground this early:

Progress in this bootcamp doesn’t come from doing everything perfectly. It comes from moving, step by step, even when you’re not sure you’re “doing enough.”

The part no one tells you about progress

Most of us have learned to recognise progress only in big, visible milestones:

• “I finished all the chapters this week.”
• “I made my first investment.”
• “I have all my finances perfectly in order now.”

Everything in between quietly gets labelled as “not enough,” even though that’s where most of the real work happens.

But your brain doesn’t work like that.

Your brain loves small wins. Every time you complete a tiny task - tick a box, finish a short lesson, submit a reflection - your brain gets a little hit of “yes, that worked.” It releases feel-good chemicals that say: keep going.

That’s why progress feels energising when it’s visible and frequent, and draining when it’s distant and all-or-nothing.

In other words, your brain is constantly learning from what you do and how it feels.

This creates a simple loop: action → reward → willingness to continue.

This is exactly why I started tracking my wins a few years ago - even the tiny, boring ones. At first it felt unnecessary, but it completely changed how my brain processed progress.

There’s actual science behind this. Our brains are wired to adapt quickly and raise the bar, which is why progress often feels invisible unless we actively mark it.

Over time, stacking small wins teaches your brain a different story: “I do hard things, one tiny step at a time.” That’s what confidence is built from, not one dramatic before‑and‑after moment.

That’s why we made the bootcamp a checklist

There’s a reason the bootcamp shows up in the app as a checklist: it makes progress visible.

Because when you’re learning something new, your brain is terrible at remembering what you’ve already done… and brilliant at zooming in on what you haven’t.

When learning something as big as investing, it’s easy to feel like “nothing has happened yet.” The checklist is there to remind you that something has happened, again and again, even if it didn’t feel dramatic in the moment.

Each tick is proof that you showed up, engaged, and moved forward.

It turns “I’m overwhelmed” into something more concrete: “I’ve done 6 steps.”

Instead of asking, “Am I done yet?”

Try asking, “What’s one more tick I can make today?”

That shift alone lowers the barrier of entry enough to keep you moving.

The quiet power of community wins

If you scroll through the community feed, you’ll see it everywhere:

Someone celebrating their first investment.

Someone posting “Finished Week 1!”

Someone finally asking the question they’d been sitting on.

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Seeing other women take action helps your brain register that this is something people like you actually do. That shared visibility reduces the sense that you’re doing this alone, or doing it “wrong.” And often, reading someone else’s win is enough to help you recognise one of your own.

Every “I did it” makes it easier for the next woman to believe she can, too.

How to start counting your wins (even on busy days)

A few years ago, after learning about the hedonic treadmill, I started tracking my wins every day - even the tiny, boring ones.

At first it felt a bit silly, but it completely changed how I move through the week. It started teaching my brain to actually register progress instead of immediately moving the goalposts, because I can actually see a trail of things that moved me forward. It keeps my momentum up, makes big goals feel less overwhelming, and lets me feel quietly proud of myself while I’m still in the messy middle.

To keep it simple, I use the Notes app in my phone. And yes, the “wins” list absolutely includes life admin - laundry, groceries, meal prep - because once you start counting those, you realise how much work it is just to be a functioning adult.

Here are a few small bootcamp wins you can stack up today:

• Tick one box in the bootcamp checklist today.
• Write down three money wins from the past week, like:
  • “Opened my investment account”
  • “Watched the webinar replay on a tired day”
  • “Asked a question in the community”
• Share one small win in the community, even if it feels obvious to you. It might be exactly what someone else needs to see.
• Decide your ‘minimum bootcamp win’ for busy days - for example:
• 10 minutes in the app = success.

The goal is to stay in motion.

If you’re feeling “behind,” read this slowly

You’re not behind. You’re in the middle, where learning actually happens, and that middle is always messier than we expect.

Confidence doesn’t arrive first. It’s built because you keep taking small steps before you feel ready.

And honestly? If you’re still opening the app, still reading, still ticking boxes - you’re already doing the thing.

Small wins aren’t a consolation prize.

They’re your proof that you follow through.