The person moving up one place may feel a change nobody outside can measure.

Small movements can be large from the inside. Going from last to second to last, or from unnoticed to counted, registers privately as proof that the direction has changed, while from outside it barely shows. Progress is scaled to what you have been living with, not to the distance covered. Dismissing a gain because it is small is a good way to lose the one you were on.

If someone tells you about a modest improvement, take it as seriously as they do rather than as the numbers do. Do the same for yourself, and let a small move count as a move.