I sat down one day in May one yearand thought about getting the life I wanted, and somewhere in the middle of mulling over my thoughts an A – Z of doing it came to me. To some of you this will be quite obvious, to others it will make a difference. Enjoy.

A

Acknowledge Your Achievements.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Of course we’re going to acknowledge our achievements, but all too often we don’t. We wait until we’ve achieved a big goal, like buying a house, getting engaged, graduating college or starting a new job. What about all the little achievements? How often do we stop and congratulate ourselves for all those goals and achievements that got us to where we are now, all those “baby steps” that led to quite a distance being travelled?

I absolutely hate, hate, hate cleaning! I can’t abide it! In fact I have some of those witty fridge magnets with comments on housework, my favourite being: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste on housework”, closely followed by “You cantouch the dust, but please don’t write in it”. I know, however, that it is a chore that has to be done if I

want to live in clean surroundings. Now, I can just as easily decide to ignore the mess as it piles up and live in squalor, but I choose not to. However, that does not deal with the problem of a house that needs cleaning, regularly, and some parts daily, day in and day out.

I particularly despise cleaning the toilet. What a disgusting job for anybody to do! However, it gets a cursory clean every day and a thorough good cleaning once a week. I acknowledge each week, my achievement of cleaning my bathroom, especially the toilet, by going out and treating myself to a cup coffee. It’s not much, but I look forward to that cup of coffee each week and the weeks where money is tight I still treat myself to my coffee as my reward for achieving a goal I set myself – to do something necessary that I hate. By acknowledging this simple achievement – and to me thankless, tedious chore, I am allowing myself to congratulate myself, pat myself on the back as it were. It is this simple acknowledgement that makes doing this chore less oppressive.

It is by acknowledging our small goals and rewarding them that we find the strength and courage sometimes to take the bigger steps to those much bigger goals that we are aiming for. The ones where visiting the cocoa plantation in sunnier climes is the reward rather than the cup of coffee in the local cafe.