Celebrating small wins: The Adobe Stock Minorstones collection

Image Credit: Adobe Stock / Studio Firma/Stocksy.

Each month, we highlight a curated collection of visuals that use imagery and imagination to tell stories about how changes in the world are impacting consumers’ priorities, values, and behaviors. As we begin 2025, January’s edition of the Adobe Stock Culture Insights series spotlights how some of the smallest victories can have some of the biggest impact on our day-to-day lives — what are often called the “minorstones.”

Traditional ideas about when and how to achieve life milestones are changing for a growing number of people. Graduating from college, getting married, having children, building a successful career, buying a home, and the like have historically served as major markers of becoming a successful adult, but in recent years these events have become harder to attain. As our personal paths become less linear, people are increasingly embracing life’s “minorstones” as more realistic achievements and markers of a life well lived.

This shift in traditional timelines and accomplishments is driving broader changes in consumer behavior and how brands engage with customers. The Adobe Stock Minorstones Collection presents a diverse range of still and motion visuals and graphics that show a wide variety of people learning new skills, achieving new personal bests in sports and fitness, and celebrating life changes and accomplishments in a wide variety of environments across multiple age groups and demographics.

Shifting life markers

Consumers are finding value in re-examining life goals to determine which ones they can realistically accomplish as well as which ones align with their lifestyles and priorities. This creates a pivotal opportunity for consumers and brands alike to appreciate and celebrate achievements that go beyond buying a home, getting married and having kids.

Young adults in the US are reaching the markers of adulthood later in life. In 2021, just 39 percent of 21-year-olds worked full-time compared with 64 percent in 1980. And only 51 percent of 21-year-olds were living outside their parents’ homes compared with 62 percent in 1980. As the cost of living rises, young adults are returning home to live with their parents or extended families. (See the rise of boomerang kids globally). This isn’t a new development in Asia and Africa, but for young adults in the US and UK, moving back home is emerging as a way to save money, manage loneliness and increase disposable income. This phenomenon shows no signs of slowing, as one study found 14 percent of US Millennials plan on living with their parents for 10 more years.

Achieving goals that support physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing are the markers of contemporary minorstones: becoming debt-free, getting sober, divorcing, achieving new personal bests in sports and fitness and even getting a new roommate or celebrating half birthdays are all minorstone events. In fact, clothing brand Madewell has started celebrating customers' half birthdays by offering them a US$15 discount.

On a list of milestones they felt should be better recognized, young Brits listed leaving an unhealthy relationship (23 percent), coming out as LGBTQ+ (18 percent), completing a physical challenge like a marathon (16 percent), and seeking therapy (13 percent). Minorstones are often underpinned by mindfulness for a generation where more than half would rather be happy and unemployed than working but unfulfilled.

Becoming debt-free is also a growing minorstone. Financial services company SoFi held a “debt graduation” ceremony for one customer who paid off her student loans. The campaign was shared on social media, with fanfare that included a marching band.

Alleviating milestone anxiety

There’s a growing awareness that everyone has their own path in life, and that expecting all people to achieve major life markers by a certain age in a time of uncertainty and global disruption is not only unrealistic but can also lead to anxiety, depression, and apathy.

Amid falling birth rates, major changes in employment, the global economy and debt, many young people feel anxious about not being on the same timeline as their parents and grandparents. In fact, 77 percent of Millennials and 83 percent of Gen Zers in the UK feel pressure to reach traditional milestones, compared to 66 percent of previous generations.

Anxiety around being able to achieve traditional milestones can be allayed with growing respect for and acknowledgement of these alternative paths. According to the WGSN report “Youth Milestones” in the EU 80 percent of people between the ages of 13 and 39 don’t care about achieving life milestones in the same order as generations past. Weddings and baby showers are no longer the only symbols of success, as celebrations for career wins, sobriety journeys, and coming-out anniversaries rise.

Research shows that celebrating small wins is essential for maintaining motivation and improving overall life satisfaction. When people celebrate their achievements, they’re more likely to remain motivated and pursue additional goals, creating a positive feedback loop of success and satisfaction. By contrast, skipping over minorstones by moving on to the next project or goal without acknowledgement can lead to diminished motivation, burnout, and apathy.

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