Career,  Relationships,  Self-Development,  Uncategorized

Take account of your year through this reflection exercise

Every day in December, a friend of mine writes down one accomplishment in the last year that makes her proud. By the end of the year, she creates a list of 31 accomplishments. What a brilliant idea! I’ve heard of many “Year in Review” type activities, but always shy away from them…they usually involve copious amounts of self-flagellation, and many of us are too good at that already. New Years doubles as an opportunity for self-reflection and change for the better, but it can also be a lovely time to simply smile at oneself and say, “well done!”.

In the spirit of self-acceptance, I’m sharing a partial list of my 2017 accomplishments. I hope it encourages you to write your own! Chances are, you’ve accomplished much more than you think. After an emotionally tumultuous year, with some of the lowest lows I’ve experienced in many years, I doubted I could generate even one, but after starting it was surprisingly easy and made me feel fantastic.

My list:

  1. Found a new job halfway across the world
  2. Arranged a leave of absence from my current company for the year
  3. Moved to Mumbai
  4. Improved my Hindi
  5. Made many new friends
  6. Practiced becoming more outgoing
  7. Learned to deal with crippling loneliness and homesickness
  8. Traveled to a number of new places: Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Maldives, Aurangabad, Nilgiris, etc.
  9. Managed relationship ups and downs
  10. Scraped mold off my wardrobe when Mumbai humidity kicked in
  11. Mopped the floors of my flooded room for four hours during Mumbai monsoons
  12. Practiced patience
  13. Learned to love two cats (used to hate them)
  14. Bought a domain
  15. Set up a website
  16. Started writing regularly
  17. Did a lot more yoga
  18. Signed up for and started a web development course

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