You’ve Accomplished a Lot More Than You Probably Think

By Rachel Puryear

Happy New Year, World Class Hugs readers! Wishing you lots of love, connection, positive vibes, and fulfillment for 2022.

As a new year rolls around, you may be contemplating resolutions, or whether to make them at all. That’s up to you – do whatever works for you. However, you may feel discouraged about not keeping past years’ resolutions 100%. Remember that none of us kept all resolutions, and many people don’t keep any. Besides, you’ve probably accomplished a lot more than you think.

Rearview shot of a young woman and man giving each other a fist bump at a work table.

You and Everyone Else Dealt With the Pandemic

We’ve all managed getting through a pandemic for a couple years now, and are still continuing to do so. Many people got sick; and also saw loved ones go through illness, or even pass away. Many folks lost livelihoods, and struggled financially. Parents and caregivers juggled caretaking and working, which burned out even the toughest. Sheltering in place complicated personal relationships, and brought many troubled ones to a head. For others, isolation intensified their loneliness. Collective mental health has taken a big toll throughout, even though this is much more subtle than the more obvious problems.

Certainly, some were impacted by the virus and its aftermath more than others, and some communities were hit a lot harder than others – but nonetheless, the collective trauma of the whole thing is big for all of us. We have all managed day-to-day life with this awful thing going on for a while now. No matter who you are, or where you’re from, just getting through this has been a big deal. It’s an accomplishment.

You Probably Focus More on Mistakes Than Achievements

It’s a well-ingrained habit for most (non-narcissistic) people – they spend a disproportionate amount of their time and energy dwelling on their mistakes, compared with the time and energy they spend recognizing and celebrating their achievements.

Don’t get me wrong – it is important to recognize and analyze mistakes. Every single successful person in human history has made numerous mistakes before mastering their craft, and even after mastering their craft they still make mistakes (usually not the rookie ones anymore, though). The path to greatness and success is paved with lots of mistakes along the way. However, the key is to analyze what went wrong, recognize the lesson, and apply the learned lesson for the future – as opposed to getting down on yourself for making the mistake, or thinking that it proves you a failure.

Furthermore, recognizing your achievements as well as your mistakes is also essential. Even if you have not yet achieved everything you want to, you are making numerous small achievements along the way. Those count, and are necessary to reach all of your goals in the longer run. For instance – if you’re writing a book, your goal is to finish the book – but smaller achievements along the way such as writing every day, finishing chapters, and finishing drafts are crucial to reaching the end goal. Accordingly, set those smaller goals and recognize achieving them, to help keep yourself motivated the entire way along.

It Isn’t All or Nothing

Even if you haven’t met the goals you hoped to by now – or kept the resolutions you wanted to – if you did part of it, that’s still something. Something is better than nothing. Make sure your goals are realistic, for the best chance of fulfilling them – also note that there’s a difference between setting the bar low, and setting it realistically. The point is not to discourage you from persisting and meeting your goals – the point is to help you recognize your smaller achievements along the way, to keep your morale up, which will help increase the likelihood of ultimately achieving your goals. And, recognize that making mistakes doesn’t make you a failure – it just means you found a new way not to do things, and that’s key to eventually mastering your craft.

Thank you, dear readers, for reading, following, and sharing. Here’s to learning from mistakes, recognizing achievements big and small, and celebrating the small goals along the way to the big goals. If you enjoyed this content and want to see more of it, please hit “like” and subscribe, if you do not do so already. xoxo

World Class Hugs