Normally at the close of a year, I spend a little time looking back at what worked and what did not. I like to examine the year’s goals (which recently have been hopes for tweaks in my routine more than resolutions, per se) to see what was “successful.”
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But 2020 isn’t a year I can evaluate that way. I haven’t even looked back at last year’s “goals.” Any metric I would normally apply to 2020 feels pointless. Did Sam and I increase our giving to causes that are important to us? If we did, I’m sure it wasn’t enough. Did we move the needle toward a more sustainable life at home? Did I write as much as I’d hoped, or meet my exercise goals? No, I didn’t: there was an f-ing pandemic. I didn’t exercise, or write, or spend quality time with my people in any of the ways I had hoped in 2020.
But 2020 was still a success, and I know this because I wrote it down in real time. Day by day, I recorded in a 10-cent spiral notebook (3 of them, actually) exactly what happened last year. In excruciating detail. I can look back and tell you the day that school was canceled. The day that one of my long-time patients died. The day my daughter and I were supposed to leave for Spain (and instead stayed—you guessed it—at home.) The day my friend entered isolation for COVID-19, and the day she emerged. The day I ran/walked a 10K by myself instead of in solidarity with my BRF and 998 strangers.
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I can tell you that one of my kids became an activist and somehow used the pandemic as a vehicle to fuel her work. One of my kids had the courage to start working through years of hurt I’d caused him and honored me by letting me do that with him. One of my kids wrote some fantastic college entrance essays and is seeing it pay off. One of my kids asked for help, and we listened.
Whether you are a Big-Picture Goals person, a Small Habits Reap Big Rewards person, or a person who thinks New Year’s is a crock, I’d encourage you to write it down. Instead of (or in addition to) looking forward at goals we may or may not accomplish this month or year, take a few minutes each day and record what did happen. It might be a list, or a doodle, or some stream of consciousness notes. You don’t have to start it January 1, or even the first of any month. Start today, whenever that is. Write down three things you’re grateful for, even if those are as mundane as indoor plumbing, a really good apple and the morning quiet before everyone else wakes up. At the end of the week, or the month, or the year, you might discover amid the chaos there was more to celebrate than you thought.
What didn’t work for me in 2019
What worked (or not) for me in 2018
Do you keep a journal? What is your favorite part of it?
Learning As We Go 
This is really good! Love your words & insight ! 🙌🏻❤️
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I found myself wishing someone in 1918 had kept a detailed journal I could read, especially if they were tutoring their own kids. But I only went through one notebook, and it’s mostly a to do list.
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