An illicit pleasure in lists of achievement

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem.

I like to make lists.  In particular, I like to list what I’ve accomplished in a day.  And I don’t want to just make a written list, I want to tell people.  I don’t because what could be more boring? (Okay, maybe somedays I do with a tweet or to an unlucky close friend, but I really am showing a lot of restraint!)

Maybe it feels more real if I tell others?  Maybe I’m shouting my pride out to the world?  I don’t know, but somehow the thrill of accomplishment is even greater when I can splatter shot the world with proof of it.

On the flip side, there is something really great about listing all you got done in a day.  And if you balance that achievement against how you felt at the start of the day (or how inspired you felt during the day), most times I find I come out ahead.  As in, I’m really freaking proud of what I’ve accomplished.

I take time to count the little things.  It’s easy to count the big things, but the little things can matter even more.  Why? Because they are what you are doing everyday.  If you wait for the thrill of success from a big thing, you could be waiting for awhile.  If you count up your little ‘done’ items, you can be proud of yourself everyday.

Some days just getting out of bed is the biggest accomplishment (that’s where you have to take into account your state of being that you were accomplishing things in, because it can dramatically affect your output and acknowledging that puts a supposed ‘lack’ of accomplishment into its proper perspective).

Other days the list of things that got done can be huge!  I love those days.  They’re usually cleaning days (errand days are pretty good, but errand running can take a lot longer than intended).  The trick is not to count the overall task as just one thing, but to break it out into its component parts that could have been done separately, on different days even.

We forget about the little things.  To count them as part of the larger whole.  Sometimes to plan for them (remembered everything for the ritual except something that could actually light a fire, oops!).  It’s so easy to dismiss them as next to nothing.

But they’re not!  Those little things make up the big moments.  Those little things are what life is made of.  When you tally the little things, you start to see just how full life is.  Don’t gloss over it by using big labels that ignore all the pieces that make it up.

Think I’m going to go make a list of all the things I got done today.  And then I’m going to bask in the glow of how damn good I feel about myself.  😀

Life ho!

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