In physical therapy, five more degrees of bend is a party. Learn to celebrate progress that small.

Once the scale shrinks, the units have to shrink with it, or everything registers as failure. Five degrees is nothing against where you used to be and a great deal against last week, and last week is the only fair comparison available. Learning to feel the smaller unit is not lowering your standards. It is reading the right instrument for the situation you are actually in.

Find the smallest thing you can honestly measure and mark it somewhere visible. Degrees, pages, minutes, reps. Let yourself be pleased about a tiny gain this week, out loud, even if it sounds absurd next to what you could once do.