By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin

Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”
Alan Lakein

Around this time last year, I read a post from Jonathan Wells at Advanced Life Skills about the importance of finishing strong. He issued a challenge for which goals his readers would like to finish strong with over the last three months of 2009.

I highly recommend that you read his challenge and think about it for yourself. I’m going to present a slightly different challenge and resource this year. If you’d like to get started right now to make 2011 the best year yet, it’s going to take some planning.

Yet, it’s one thing to get excited about a new year, and quite another to face the work of planning.

I’m going to give you the first step today, and over the next 10 weeks, I am going to give you each of the steps to make this the Best Year Yet.   Your Best Year Yet!: Ten Questions for Making the Next Twelve Months Your Most Successful Ever, by corporate trainer and entrepeneur Jinny S. Ditzler, came about after 20 years of giving seminars and workshops on this very topic. I’ve used this material each year to plan my subsequent year ahead, and it’s made a big impact on my life.

Countdown to 2011: Week 1: What Did I Accomplish?

Credit: Celebration by bfick on Flickr

A Star and A Wish

Celebrate your success! For many of you who are high achievers, it can be only too easy to notice what you have left undone.  Some of us may have an easier time than others in celebrating our victories and accomplishments.  Since I am a bit hard on myself, I used to have a tendency to discount all the positive things I accomplished.  I had a faulty belief that if I was hard enough on myself, I’d get more done.  It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the way I thought.

Thanks to Jinny’s Ditzler’s material, I’ve learned to be proud of accomplishing the goals I set for myself the year before.

How about you?  Maybe it’s the way you grew up in school, getting graded on your performance.  Maybe it’s your temperament.  I don’t know about you, but I know that I feel a whole lot better when my efforts at worked are praised before I’m given criticism.

At a continuing education event this weekend, the presenter told a story about his wife.  She’s a pediatrician, and the director of a maternity ward at a hospital.  She also trains medical residents, the future pediatricians of America.  An astute teacher, she asks her students how they would like to receive their feedback.  One student gave a great answer, “I’d like a star and a wish!”  In other words, that student wanted to hear some praise before moving on to areas of improvement.

Don’t let your inner critic get in the way!  Celebrate your success. And, once you have identified some of your victories from the year, if there are still some goals unfinished, be sure to read Jonathan’s post on finishing strong.

Examples

Here are some examples from a fictional character in Best Year Yet.  She’s a woman who had a difficult year, and yet able to put that difficulty in the context of some of her accomplishments:

1. Cooked at least two hundred dinners for my family.
2. Did not gain any more weight-at least.
3. Got a good promotion at work.
4. Read ten novels and five high-quality nonfiction books.
5. Decorated Sarah’s bedroom.
6. Stayed within the household budget and saved over $1,000.
7. Learned to type.
8. Took care of things at home and work while I’ve been exhausted.
9. Been much more positive and supportive with the kids.
10. Did not throw a tantrum when our vacation was canceled.
11. Entertained our friends a bit more.
12. Paid off my credit card every month.

Now it’s your turn.  Make sure you take some time to review any goals you set for 2010.
What goals have you accomplished this year?
What other accomplishments are you proud of?