Write more, earn more, do more.
Eat less, spend less, worry less.

Uggh. Years ago I gave up the grind of resolutions.
My inner critic is alive and kicking, why give her more material?

Instead, at the suggestion of writer Lisa Romeo, I practice the annual creation of an I Did It List.

This week — or maybe the next (I’m passively rebellious, after all) — I’ll take time to write a list of things accomplished in the past year. From the puny to the profound, everything is ripe for review.

Did I try something new? Make new friends? Did I stretch myself physically, mentally, emotionally? Did I help others? Was I moved by a poem, stirred by a movie, invigorated by a view?

To me, this process of reflection is more interesting and encouraging than the tired resolutions I used to churn out every year. Those plans and promises were usually short-lived and only set me up for a cycle of failure, disappointment and discouragement.

Some years are tough, though, and writing the list can seem a daunting task. But even in the dark times I almost always find nuggets I had forgotten: big, small, and unexpected, and feel buoyed by the accomplishment. Books read, stories written, friends made, leaps, lessons, victories — I did it!

One caveat, I keep my Did It list private. No one likes a braggart. (As evidence I refer you to the oft-mocked Christmas Letter from Overachieving Parents with Perfect Children).

Still, you may want to shout your list from rooftops or whisper in a phone. I understand. Your List might encourage another to recall their own success. These are difficult days, and a good list — like good news or a fresh poem — lifts with the air of sharing.

Again I resume the long

lesson: how small a thing

can be pleasing, how little

in this hard world it takes

to satisfy the mind

and bring it to rest.

— Wendell Berry
excerpt from Sabbaths, 1999, VII
as it appears in Given: Poems