Sense of Place: It’s a Friday night in North County San Diego. Listening to: the always amazing Delta Blues Pandora station and my lightly snoring husband. Grateful for this, and also for our son AJ – at home and at the moment happy, the dog sleeping on the couch next to me; the weekend in front of us.
We all keep to-do lists, but how many of us keep accomplishment lists? Our resume’s are a version of this, and we can use our photo albums as such, too. But to actually keep a list of the things we have deemed accomplishments – it is rare that we implement this and follow through.
I have put this into practice in my own life, and I now recommend it to the people I work with and coach. The initial response is typically mixed: people like the idea, but have trouble discerning what should be considered an accomplishment. At its heart though, is a method of reflection on what we value in life.
Here’s how to implement this practice:
- Keeping track – determine what works best for you. Are you more likely to write it down on paper or do you prefer a google doc or spreadsheet? To consider: What will be the easiest way to look back on your accomplishments? It is unlikely that you’ll page through an old journal, and scraps of paper become maddening, but if you have a running list somewhere, you can get an easy snapshot AND see some progress. Yes, there are a million apps and ways to do this, just pick something simple that works for you for the long term.
- Getting started: Just start. Any new practice feels strange at first, but if you know this at the beginning, you are less likely to abandon the project.
- Make it a practice. Keeping this top of mind helps adequately capture our good stuff. Weekly is great, monthly also works, but some accomplishments may get lost. If this happens, looking back at your calendar will jog your memory. To get into the habit, you can create a note or reminder to help solidify the habit.
- Keep it simple. Like my colleague likes to say, it doesn’t have to be a science project. The goal is to capture your personal body of work. Whether a two-word succinct phrase or a paragraph, this list is what you want it to be.
Why is this important?
- Calibration, baby! This balances out that long list we keep in our heads of our mistakes and shortcomings.
- A Powerful Tool. In the first few months your entries will seem scant, but 12 months in – you will begin to see the really good stuff that will remind you of all you’ve done – where you’ve come from and where you are going. At the two- and three-year mark, it really becomes a powerful tool. Patterns will emerge, confidence deepens, and you may be able to leverage your experiences to open up new paths in your career or personal life.
- Fulfillment in the moment. I believe that our culture often encourages dissatisfaction – we want more of what we don’t have and forget what is right in front of us. This tool is a reminder that we can experience the joy of fulfillment with what we have and what we’ve already experienced on this journey. As someone who often fights with remembering this, this practice has been a huge help.
Gotta go…my accomplishment list needs updating! Until next time!
Photo by Daniel Hjalmarsson on Unsplash