Wednesday, January 3, 2018

What Are You Proud of Accomplishing Last Year?

laptop & journal

Remember when I joked the other day about creating a “List Out All Your Accomplishments” Day in order to counteract all the New Years Resolution #fails most of us end up getting? So we feel better about ourselves and actually give ourselves credit for achieving stuff?

Well, I was going to just leave it at that, but then I came across an old journal of mine while cleaning up this week and found a page of exactly that – all my accomplishments from the year! 2013 to be exact. And it made me feel SO STUPIDLY HAPPY to see!!!

Here’s a snapshot of it:

2013 accomplishments list

It’s as cool as it is random, right??? Learning how to juggle? Moving somewhere new? Growing my first handlebar mustache?? Haha… Pic or it didn’t happen, right?

http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2013/01/new-years-resolution-2013-keep-it-simple/

All things I’ve wanted to do over the years, but none of which ever landed in my official New Year’s Resolutions. You know what my resolution was for 2013? “Keep stuff simple” I.e. streamlining all my financial accounts and projects more and “condensing, condensing, condensing.” A valiant goal, but none of which as specific (or fun) as the list above :)

Though I did find this nugget when I went back to re-read that year’s resolution:

“I literally just heard on the radio that it’s better to focus on ONE thing early on rather than a handful as it increases your odds of not giving up ;) Which, according to this same person, will happen to 80% of us come January 21st – the date most people will have already thrown in the towel, haha… She also went on to say that if you can capture your goal with one simple word (no joke!), then it’ll help push you along even further. So I must REALLY be on track here! :)”

Feels about accurate! But again, whether you hit your NY’s goal or not, it still doesn’t change the course of all your *other* accomplishments you’ll go on to achieve throughout the year.

And that’s the point to this made-up holiday I’m now making official ;) Accomplishments Day, January 3rd, is all about those *wins* from the previous year, no matter how big or small or silly! We all accomplish a number of things regardless of how crappy our years are, but we’re absolutely terrible at remembering them or even appreciating them, for that matter.

So Today, Accomplishments Day, I urge you to whip out a piece of paper or spreadsheet or TPS report, and go back in the mental time machine to pluck out every last awesome thing you did last year that just straight up makes you PROUD.

It can be related to anything in the world at all – work, life, money – but it has to be jotted down, and it has to be stuff that makes you happy. Then, paste it up somewhere so you will see it every day! Or at least until the end of the weekend, giving you plenty of time to really let it all soak in…

Then, take out another piece of paper/TPS report and write “2018 Accomplishments” across the top to keep handy as the 2018 year rolls on. Updating this one will be a lot easier – and fun! – than doing it in one big chunk at the end of the year ;)

I’ll then ask y’all about it in 12 months on the anniversary of Accomplishments Day! And will post up all your notes too for an even more festive celebration. Else you’ll just end up getting my own my random list again, haha…

Speaking of which, here’s mine for 2017 after some good marinating (you’ll be amazed at what you can come up with in 10-15 minutes!):

  • Paid off my car
  • Maxed out IRAs
  • Finally bought new shoes and clothes!
  • Stopped working nights and weekends
  • Became a part-time stay-at-home daddy over Summer
  • Made a big decision with a project (ironically, the same one mentioned in that 2013 list!)
  • Woke up between 5-5:30am every (work) day
  • Went to the doctors and dentist regularly like an adult (!!)
  • Grew net worth exponentially (next report coming out shortly)
  • And most importantly – remained alive :)

It’s interesting how in 2013 I didn’t list a single financial thing outside of some consulting growth, but then again if my memory serves correctly it hadn’t been a great year up to that point anyways… So again – good thing I had a bunch of other wins to fall back on and impress upon myself! Haha…

Which is really who these lists are for, btw – YOU. Not for sharing with the world or plastering around your offices, etc. (unless you happen to be an anonymous blogger too ;)). It’s strictly to make yourself happy, and perhaps future versions of yourself or your family as well.

Can you imagine stumbling across lists like these from your father or grandfather, or even great-great-grandfather one day? Would be so cool!! And something that’s getting rarer and rarer as we move away from the print world and more into the digital one too, sigh…

But I digress.

If you want to do something fun today, whip out that paper and start giving yourself those handwritten pats on the back! NY’s resolutions are great and you should still go after them of course, but this gives all your other wins a chance to shine as well. Which look a lot more impressive combined than they do alone.

On Friday we’ll be back for one more new year’s-related item (actually, a cool giveaway!), and then we’ll finally point our feet forward and jump right into the new year here :)

Happy Accomplishments Day, everyone! You’ve done a lot more than you think!!

*******
PS: Found one other list in my old journal too… of which only one thing was ever completed ;)

http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/net-worth/

Via Finance http://www.rssmix.com/

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