Notice the progress you made this year

Next week is December. You made it through (most of) 2021. Well done! This year was definitely not for the faint of heart.

If you are anything like us, there were days when you didn’t feel like showing up. But you did. You felt like you had no idea what you were doing. But you made a plan, sought advise and grew in the process. Maybe you saw no way through a difficult situation. But here you are. Still chipping away.

Again, if you are like us you probably didn’t notice the progress you made. Humans are really good at identifying the next threat, difficulty or challenge – without paying attention to what we just achieved a second ago. Often we don’t notice the progress because it seems so insignificant. Gradual progress is still progress – most great feats are achieved one millimeter at a time.

So here’s what you can do: make time for some retrospective introspection. Look through your 2021 photo album on your phone, read through your journal, page through your social media feed, look at your calendar and everything you did. Wherever you keep some record of what you’ve done over the past 11 months, go back and look at what you’ve achieved. Much of it might seem small or you might not feel particularly proud of everything you’ve done – but chances are you’ll find something worth celebrating. And that’s worth doing. Here’s a cool visual representation by Liz and Mollie:

Taking the time to reflect every now and again is very useful, as James Clear puts it:

As always, thank you for reading and ending your week on a high.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.