We’re galloping at speed towards the end of the year, and there’s a lot of stuff around right now about counting up your accomplishments for the year. Which is awesome if you’re a high-flying, goal-achieving superstar. But for most people I know, they don’t feel like they’ve done much this year.
They have. But you know, they haven’t earned £1 million, or published 8 books, or started a charity, or travelled the world, run 5 marathons in 2 days, or moved the world 3 inches to the left.
Damn those over-achievers!
But here’s the thing – all of us have accomplished stuff over the past year. Trouble is, we don’t really celebrate (or oftentimes, notice) our small wins, so those achievements go by totally unnoticed.
Even just getting through another year can be a huge accomplishment for some of us!
Did you get out of bed, keep your job, pay your bills, spend time with friends and family, create something, do some exercise, treat yourself, clear some clutter, laugh til your tummy hurt, do something you’ve never done before, get through a super tough time?
These are all wins.
Ok, you might have had big plans for this year. I certainly planned to do more than release a paperback version of my book and start writing the next one. But I also wanted to make joy and self-care more of a priority.
Which meant no pushing myself to get on with it, no deadlines, no stress. That may have resulted in getting less done, but it also meant fewer meltdowns, so it’s a win for me.
Give yourself the gift of noticing what you actually did this year, what you achieved. Did you pay off a credit card, save for a holiday, help a friend out, make progress on a work project, help your kids achieve something, be your kids’ taxi/cook/nurse/assistant?
(Moms, you may think this is your job, and you don’t deserve kudos for it, but it’s a bloody tough job and you deserve all the credit you can get for doing it!)
Look for what you did do, what you are proud of. For the past few years, around this time of year, I’ve done a ‘review’ of the past year. Every time, I think I haven’t done anything. Nothing interesting or exciting has happened. No notable moments have occurred.
And every year (without fail), I find lots of things to pat myself on the back for, lots of good stuff that happened, lots of problems I solved, lots of cool stuff that I’ve completely forgotten about.
So I encourage you to take a moment (or an hour) to think back over the past year and find and celebrate all your small wins, all the highlights of the year, everything you’ve enjoyed and done.
And if you want a little help reviewing last year and getting set up for the year ahead, the “Create and Live Your Vision” package is open again for purchase for the next month.
This is the process I use to say goodbye to one year and create a vision for the next.
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