Several years ago I came across the book “Life Makeover” by Cheryl Richardson.  I’ve started and stopped the process of working through the 52 weeks in this book several times.  My stopping has never been because of the material.  I find the approach worthwhile and simple to follow.  In most cases I’ve stopped because I de-prioritized the effort.  I believe my past decisions not to complete the entire 52 weeks has been “my loss”.

So, here I am once again…book in hand and eager to get started.  The book is designed to walk-through the year one week at a time.  While it isn’t stated explicitly, I believe the intent is to start at the beginning of the year.  I don’t want to wait, so I’m starting now.  I’ll probably get through the first few chapters quickly and as I move through the book other chapters might take longer.

Chapter 1 – The Journey Begins

I appreciate Cheryl’s decision to not start out with “what do you want to accomplish in the next year” and rather start with “what have you accomplished in the last year”.  I don’t often look back and congratulate myself on what I’ve done.  I spend most of my time fretting over the things I have yet to do.

With that said, here are some of my accomplishments from the last year (or so):

• Travel
  • Took my mom to Belize in order to share why I’ve fallen in love with the small country.
  • Accomplished a major travel bucket list item…The Galapagos.
  • Traveled to Machu Picchu.
  • Road-tripped to Alaska, including the Alaska Marine Highway System.
  • Asked for a large amount of time off work and saved my vacation hours for an upcoming trip to Belize, Tokyo (for a day), New Zealand, and Australia.

• Blogging/Writing
  • Created a post schedule for both of my blogs and stayed mostly on schedule (at least for the last couple of months).
  • Created an outline for a potential book (it might never be published, but is still good practice).
  • Re-started my online travel writing course.

• Photography
  • Took a couple photo editing courses in the spring.
  • Scheduled four upcoming photography workshops (Portraits, Composition, Landscape & Nature, and Night).
  • Scheduled to attend a National Geographic lecture on Creative Lighting.
  • Re-started my online travel photography course.

• Health
  • Had my third knee surgery, in three years, and I think it worked this time.
  • Focused on losing weight.
  • Walked or hiked nearly every weekend, even though I still had a knee brace and crutches at the beginning of the year.
  • Participated in a work walking challenge and my team took seventh place.

• Finances
  • Refinanced my house.
  • Saved up money for my trip to Belize, Tokyo, New Zealand, and Australia (I won’t have to put any of it on my credit card).

• Home
  • Planted and maintained an amazing garden that produced more tomatoes than I could eat.  My neighbors and friends were happy to help eat them.
  • Organized all of my to do lists into one using Toodledo.

• Work
  • Stood up for myself when I thought I was being taken advantage of.
  • Asked for what I wanted/needed (see travel).

It’s hard to remember all the good accomplished in a year.  I’m glad to have this exercise so that I can celebrate my accomplishments before jumping into what I want to do/change in the coming year.

No accomplishment is too small.  What have you accomplished this year?  How will you celebrate?