How was 2017 for you?
Take a moment to think about your year.
Were there a lot of changes or were things steady?
If you set goals at the beginning of the year, how did you measure up?
Write down three significant moments or events.
Now ask yourself how you feel about your year. Do you feel like celebrating? Or are you ‘qualifying’ your achievements? You’ll celebrate only when certain conditions are met.
Here’s one of mine. This year I wrote a book. My test readers have given it great reviews and my publishers are editing it right now. It will be published in two month’s time. Is that a success? Does it count as an achievement for this year?
Honestly, not really, not yet. I’m delaying any ‘real’ celebration because it’s not complete. This means I ignore the milestones – research and planning the book, writing a 40,000 word manuscript, completing several iterations of editing, sending it out to test readers, receiving some amazing reviews, sending it off to the publisher. For me none of these count – just yet.
Why would anyone do that? Why would we put off enjoying the satisfaction of hard work well done?
Partly we have been trained this way, by an educational system that measures the end result. Study throughout the year and then take one exam to pass or fail. We’re taught that only the end result is important; the destination and not the journey.
And what does this end-result-itis do for you? It steals away the pleasure of your work. That satisfaction that you have accomplished something at the end of each day. Feeling good about your efforts.
When you only look at the future goal, then you live in a constant state of mild dissatisfaction punctuated by an occasional celebration of an end result.
And many don’t celebrate the result either. They’re off like a jack-rabbit onto the next big project, the next end goal.
If this sounds at all like you, then maybe you would like something different for next year? Maybe you’d like to have a year that is more rewarding? It just takes a little consistent focus.
Before you begin planning your next big goals, review what you achieved in this past year. Slow down and appreciate the effort and challenges you have overcome. And if things didn’t go as planned, then look at it as the things you have learned. Learning can also count as success.
Put time in your schedule for celebrating what you have done; the effort, the small milestones and the learnings.
If you make celebrating your work one of the goals for the coming year, 2018 will be a truly great year.
Tara Halliday, See Bio
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