Achievement Ledger—Get The Year Started Right.

I have always been a list maker. For me, that’s the only way to get things done. So, as you can imagine, New Year’s Eve is like my personal Superbowl. I always had a long list of things to do for the coming year before the ball dropped. The funny thing was, I never completed everything on my list. When the end of the year came around, I found myself focusing on what I didn’t get done. In 2008, I decided to do something different. I pioneered a concept called the Achievement Ledger. Instead of making lists of things I would do in the future, I wrote down the things I completed. I had no hard and fast rules for this Achievement Ledger, I just wrote down each important item I accomplished that day. I kept this up the entire year and the results were staggering. I had accomplished 914 important things during 2008. Wow, talk about empowering! It sure beat the feeling of thinking that I didn’t get anything done during the year.

I highly recommend the Achievement Ledger concept. You can keep track of your achievements with a Word document on your computer, or take the old school approach and use a paper notebook. Either way, it’s an excellent exercise that is bound to bolster your self-esteem as the year rolls on. And speaking of exercise, the Achievement Ledger is a great way to keep your fitness goals on track, because that’s definitely one accomplishment you want to write down.

One last piece of advice on this subject. Make your Achievement Ledger notes daily. If you wait a week, you won’t remember everything. And, as with any other activity, when you do it every day it becomes a habit. Good luck with your Achievement Ledger. Let me know how this works for you.

— Richard Fink, DC, FIAMA

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