Celebrate Your Achievements in 2019 and then Look Forward
Do you tend to look forward to everything you’d like to achieve rather than looking back and celebrating what you’ve already achieved?
I must admit, I’m usually in the former camp. I like to set goals and move forward step-by-step, with my gaze firmly fixed ahead. However, I read an article recently that made me stop and think.
It said that, if you’re always looking ahead to what you’d like to achieve, there will always be a “gap” and you’ll feel a sense of lack. If, however, you look back and appreciate how far you’ve come, there will be no sense of lack. Only a feeling of contentment and abundance.
After reading the article, I immediately wrote down 30 things I’d achieved in 2019, big and small, personal and professional. (I’m sure there were more than that but these were the things that came to mind).
What I found surprised me a little. Although some achievements resulted from goals I’d written down, others were quite unexpected. Like the time when one of my articles was picked up by The Startup, the largest publication on Medium.
It showed me that, yes it is a good idea to set goals and keep moving forward. But, we can’t guarantee that we’ll achieve all those goals because so much is outside our control.
However, as we move forward, we’ll also achieve some unexpected things as a by-product of moving forward. And these things will fit in perfectly with our goals.
In fact, they may be better than our goals. Our goals come from our minds and limited thinking, whereas our unexpected achievements seem to come from something greater than that!
I also plan to write a list of things I’ve achieved this decade before moving on to planning what I’d like to achieve in 2020 and the 20s.
I’d like to be more positive in 2020, so I’ve compiled a list of 366 positive words to help make 2020 your best year yet. You could use them in a variety of ways, as explained in the article. If you find other ways of using them, please let me know!
I’d also like to be more creative in 2020. Would being distracted and daydreaming more help me achieve this? Lisa-Anne Sanderson’s latest article — Distractions and Daydreams Help Inspire Creativity - says that it would, backed up scientific evidence.
Like many people, I sometimes find it hard to get started on something new. When I feel like this, I’ll turn to 5 Quotes to Inspire You to Take that First Small Step, compiled by Anne Emerick.
That’s it for 2019, folks! Thank you so much for subscribing to Small Steps. I hope that it’s inspired you in 2019 and will continue to do so in 2020 and beyond!
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a very happy, healthy and successful year and decade to come,
Founder of Small Steps
