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Monday, December 30, 2013

A week of endings and beginnings

A new year is right around the corner.  This is one of my favorite times of year.  It’s like a fresh start.  I can make plans for things I want to do in the coming year.  I also find it really rewarding to look at what I did in the current year.

Over the next few days, I’ll have a daily blog post to help me and hopefully you, too, look at 2013 and ahead to 2014.   

We are going to kick things off with one of my favorite activities of the new year – looking back.

Do you sometimes think you haven’t gotten a lot done?   You’ve been spinning your wheels?  Doing routine things?  Where did the year go???  I've got an activity that is sure to change your view. 

You’ll be surprised at all you have done in a year!  Truly.  Grab some paper or open a new Word document and start jotting down the things you have accomplished in the last year.  When you have everything listed you can think of, here are more ways to jog your memory:

Look at your scrapbook pages, art journal pages, or a regular journal.  What activities and events did you scrap about this year?  How were these accomplishments for you?

Do you do objectives for your job?  If so, what did you do this past year?  What did you do that went beyond the stated objectives?

What were the major accomplishments of other members of your household?  How do you contribute to those?  This is a biggie and we don’t often think of this first.  Yet, we contribute to other’s success! 

Review your calendar.  The appointments you had may remind you of things you did or sometimes things you had to deal with like doctor’s appointments for an illness.  Dealing with a medical condition in a positive way is definitely an accomplishment.

Use this list of prompts to further jog your memory:
·       
  • personal health and well-being – lose weight?  give up or decrease a bad health habit? start a good habit this past year?
  • career changes or planning -   taking classes?  change jobs?  apply for jobs.  Whether you got the job or not, you went through a process.  If you got an interview you accomplished more than many in line for the same position.  make new contacts?  participate in networking activities?
  • vacation – planning, paying for, packing for and recovering from a trip is often a major task especially if you have more people to please with your choices than just you.
  • marriage and parenting - how did you help your spouse or children succeed in the last year?
  • family needs – do you care for anyone outside your household such as parents, aunts, uncles, friends?  do you take any of those people to doctor’s appointments, prepare meals or provide emotional support?
  • adopt a pet and acclimate it to your household?
  • volunteer work – what did you do to help others beyond your job and family needs?
  • religious activities - become more active in your church? change religious affiliations?
  • your hobby – what did you create this year? did you learn a new skill?
  • technology – get a new computer or tablet?  (that can take hours of time to select and to setup) Learn something new?
  • home improvement – what did you do to improve your home this year? Did you move, remodel, repaint a room, shop for and buy new furnishings?

Some years, this accomplishments list is my salvation.  It can seem like I didn’t get anything done.  Yet when I go through this process I realize just how much I accomplished.

Even before I did my list, I had positive feelings about 2013.  It was a good year, yet after making my list I realized I'd done even more than I thought!  

Here are just a few of the things that made my list.  Some are a big deal, some took very little time yet they still left me with a feeling of accomplishment:
  • Cleaned basement throwing away a truck load (literally) of stuff.
  • Continued our date days about 2 times per month including gardens in Charlotte, shopping and dining out locally, touring BMW plant in SC, local art museum...
  • Created my first on-line class which involved writing the PDF’s, creating 11 layouts/sketches, filming and editing 10 videos, determining a publishing platform.
  • Walked regularly with Lenny; do calf stretches after walk
I hope you will make your list of accomplishments.  This isn't just a feel good exercise, thought that is very important.  It can also help you see what ares you want to work on for 2014.

Tomorrow I'll share the scrapbook page I did with my list.  Not to worry, the list can be kept as private as you like.

Do you do a process like this to wrap up the year?  

See you back here tomorrow!

5 comments:

  1. Great ideas, Lisa. It does give you a great feeling when you realize just how much you have accomplished. This is my favorite time of year...rapping up one year, starting with a clean slate on the new year...and my birthday is in January so each new year always feels like a fresh start for me. :)

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  2. Love your ideas! I think it is easy to forget how much we truly accomplish in one year.

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  3. Great ideas.
    I feel like I didn't accomplish as much this year as others…but now looking at your list, I did, they mostly for my daughter and her new home, but they were still accomplishments :)
    Every year I do a project share of photos of the creative projects I have done this year…not sure if I will be doing that this year though.

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  4. I enjoyed reading this post Lisa -a review of the year's accomplishments is a good idea-I haven't done something like that since my corporate days-but you have me thinking now-happy New Year my stamping friend

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  5. Excellent ideas, Lisa! I'll make my list tomorrow. Your prompts have filled my head with lots of things I've accomplished. Can't wait to see your page on this. Happy New Year 2014!

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