Power of a List

New Year's resolutions.
Goals. Objectives. Targets. Plans. Lists.
I just passed along a daily planner to a friend. A month at-a-glance I've been picking up at my barber shop for years. This year I picked the landscape of Denali and the Grand Canyon. No better time to go "BIG" than the beginning of a new year! This tool has fostered an awareness of what's next, in me, for over two decades. Even as the utility of the pocket-size tracker wanes each year I always take a couple. Part memory and part Pavlovian twitch.

I'm reminded of another useful tool as I embark on another circle round the Sun. Maybe as useful and effective, if not more so than a transcribed plan for the day. That's a consideration of what was accomplished last year. Part reflection, part gratitude and quite a bit of fond remembrance. A list of what was done. Which to my surprise has become a vital segue into what I plan to do.

The suggestion of a list that notes our past has been around for quite awhile. The most formal is a resume. Once I imagined updating it yearly, monthly, weekly or daily it's utility became enlivened. Literally it transformed my vision from a linear path forward with a shrinking past to a wonderful circle where I rarely disconnect from my history. Even in this bitter cold Northeast winter things always seem not that far away from a grateful renewal infused with the warmth and possibility of Spring.

Never underestimate the power of a list!