Celebrate Your Accomplishments

It's getting close to the end of the first month of 2021.  Usually, by now, many of us have messed up on our New Year's resolutions (assuming we even made any,) but some of us have managed to keep them.  And while it may seem silly to be proud of yourself for sticking with something for a certain number of days, it's important that we take some time to do just that.

It's important to celebrate the little accomplishments in our lives--to acknowledge that in some ways, we have grown.  Why, though?  Why is it important?

Celebrating allows us to reflect on something good in our lives--progress that provides a sense of accomplishment.  This can help us later on down the line when we're struggling to keep up with our goals.  We can look back on that moment of celebration and know that the effort we made had benefits--and so, then, our current endeavors can do the same if we stick with it.

I've been thinking a lot about resiliency this week, as my fear response has kicked into overdrive--knowing that this month's topic is about to come to an end and that I'll be diving into a new one in February.  I keep worrying that I'll just forget one day, or that I'll wake up one morning and just not want to do it--and give in to that temptation.  But that hasn't happened so far, and come Sunday, even as I am writing to the President, I'll be celebrating the fact that I have managed to write here for a whole month straight--sticking to a topic that meant something important to me.

I hope that in future days, when I'm struggling to make it to my goals I can look back on that end-of-January celebration and remember that I can do the things I set out to do.  They may not all be my best effort all the time, but I didn't quit; and I didn't give up.  Hopefully that can bolster my resolve and help me to reach the next goal and the next.

One last little tangent, as tomorrow I'll be looking back at the month as a means of reflection:

I realize that right now I don't really know what I want to do with my life.  I'm not sure what I could be good at, and although I want to get my bachelor's degree for sure, I don't know what I want to accomplish once I have it.

For a long time in high school, I thought what I wanted to do was to be an opera star.  That was the thing that everyone sort of thought I'd become, but I never really worked all that hard to understand what being an opera star meant.  I just...loved to sing and perform.  When I got to college, I began to realize that there was a lot more to opera than just singing, though.  There was stage presence, and following a conductor's baton.  There was movement and sometimes dancing required.  There were languages to learn, and theories to understand.  And as I recalled how difficult doing those things in high school were, and as I grappled with my lack of eyesight and worried about whether or not there was actually anything I could do well, I found myself despairing about my future.  And I haven't found a way past that, yet.  Every job I look at has some element of competition and a need for good eyesight--or at least awareness.  Journalism, for instance, would require that I could get around on my own, to see expressions on peoples' faces and be able to share that with others.  And that's just not something I can reliably do.  Working retail, I found that thieves began to understand I couldn't see well and would target our stores because of me.  You can't begin to know how much that made my heart ache--that I would be a drain for others.  Still, I'm going to keep exploring my options, though one of the few jobs I know I qualify for seems like a soulless endeavor meant to intrude on others' lives (call center work.)

But...there has to be something.  And I will find it.  It might not be for another few years, but I will keep looking.  I just...needed to make that confession here, because although I am making personal progress--completing goals, I'm not sure what the point of all of this is yet.

And I guess I just want you to know that if you don't know either, it's okay.  You can still accomplish things without having a larger goal in mind.  You can still keep moving forward.  And maybe your whole life will be trying to figure out what that one thing you can do in life is; I don't know.

But for now, it's important to celebrate even these small steps--to ensure that we have something to fall back on when things get tough.  We don't have to figure out everything in a moment, and maybe we never will; but we'll keep working at it.

Maybe, today then, find something to celebrate, or make a plan to have something to celebrate, and then plan out how you mean to do just that.  Then get out there and make it so.