This is Day 4 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.

Celebrating personal victories is important. All too often we focus on our struggles. What we can’t do.

With chronic pain (and I imagine other chronic conditions), seeing your limits and losses is a daily occurrence. It is easy to forget just what kind of warrior you are. Those victories are important. Each one is a testament to your strength and something you should celebrate.

Maybe it is something as small as wearing real pants or shaving your legs. Maybe it is the first few steps you took after they told you that you might not walk again. It could be eating out confidently with food allergies. Or finally convincing your mother-in-law that Celiac is, in fact, a real disease. It could be that you aced a test. Maybe you left the house for the first time all week. Or you wore high heels again. With pride. You made it to Friday without wanting to fire all your clients? It counts.

Maybe you just made it through the day. You are a warrior with a history of victory. Your life has not claimed you, you are claiming it. Celebrate. See the positive.

“I am not a victim. No matter what I have been through, I’m still here. I have a history of victory.” ― Steve Maraboli

After a car accident 5 years ago, they told me that I wouldn’t walk much less wear high heels again. A year and a half later I injured my knee running a 5k and the doctor said no more fancy shoes. When the pain got so bad that I couldn’t wear real pants and a gentle breeze hurt, they said wear supportive flats, the high heels will worsen the pain. I have gotten to a point, with several bouts of physical therapy, epidural nerve blocks, ketamine and a spinal cord stimulator, that I can wear my favorite kind of shoes – you know, the tallest ones I can find. I can’t do it every day, and not always for very long. But every time I do, I think of all the people who said I wouldn’t.

Soon, I will win the battle with real pants and shaving the offending leg. But for now, I am satisfied with this victory. (And some killer new shoes).

Pause on your battlefield today and take stock and see just how many victories you have won. I’d wager there are far more than you imagine. It is those victories that we do not spend enough time celebrating.