Ta-da!

This is your official invitation to pause and celebrate your progress. 

As we near the midpoint of the calendar year, it’s not uncommon for leaders to feel a bit of extra pressure.

Perhaps you’re in deep need of rest after a long stretch of effort. Perhaps you’re returning from vacation and feeling behind. Perhaps you’re looking back at your beginning-of-year intentions and expectations and feeling far away from your original aspirations. 

Whatever your case, I invite you to take a breath and give yourself a moment to honor your efforts on the journey thus far. Here’s a fun practice to try:

Set aside your to-do list, and try playing with a TA-DA list. 

While a to-do list captures what you’re hoping to accomplish in the future, a ta-da list captures what you’ve already accomplished in the past. 

Ta-da lists are great ways to look back on your progress and dwell in your successes.

I have been keeping a running ta-da list for over a year, and I’m always in awe of how easy it is for me to forget the many things I accomplished. A ta-da list serves as a powerful tracker and reminder of your efforts and experiences. 

Any end-point can be a great opportunity for a ta-da list. I have used them as a way to close the day, review a month, recap a quarter, and look back on a whole year. You can even use them to mine the accomplishments from a specific event or a meeting. 

The power comes from pausing to take stock of the progress. In the pause, we can honor and celebrate the path.

While it may be true that you’re not precisely where you want to be, a ta-da list serves as evidence to remind you that you’re no longer where you first started. You’re well on your way!

What’s on your ta-da list? Cheers to you and your progress up to this point.