Celebrate every PR (personal record)! Be happy with your progress! Don’t worry about what average is, or who has different numbers. Milestones should NOT be ignored.
Check out this article from Lift Big Eat Big. Stop waiting to be proud of yourself!
An excerpt is below:
There seems to be a trend among new athletes, and even intermediate athletes, that they feel they shouldn’t yet be proud of their accomplishments. They feel as though, once they reach a certain number or weight, THEN they can be happy with their progress.
The problem with this, of course, is that you will NEVER be happy if you take this approach. I think some folks adhere to this way of thinking for fear of reproach from advanced lifters who think their numbers suck. Well I just have to ask: what kind of environment are we, the more advanced lifters, fostering, where a beginner has to feel like crap about their lifts or we will make fun of them?