A Frog’s Checklist

Like I wrote yesterday, birthdays are a time of reckoning for me and a chance to do some soul accounting and life balancing. Here is a checklist I used to work through each decade, then narrowed it down to every five years, and now I do it every year simply because I realise that time is short and we live on borrowed time.

1. Values I have outgrown
2. New values I live by
3. Values I struggle with
4. People who have helped me grow
5. People who have hindered my growth
6. People I wish to leave in my past
7. My anchors
8. My sources of strength
9. Dreams I shelved
10. Ideas I want to turn into plans
11. Places I want to visit the next 12 months
12. Have I touched a life?
13. Have I made a difference in my community?
14. Have I made a contribution to the world?
15. Have I served my fellow man?
16. Have I served the community?
17. These I have rescued
18. These I have discarded
19. These I have lost
20. Have I been a good neighbour?
21. Am I good friend?
22. Am I generous with my time and treasures?
23. Do I know how to embrace failure?
24. How I deal with pain
25. How I deal with grief
26. How I deal with loss
27. How I close a chapter in my life
28. These things I need to work on (mind)
29. These things I need to work on (soul)
30. These things I need to work on (spirit)
31. These things I need to work on (home)
32. Have I been good to myself?
33. Have been generous with myself?
34. Moments I am selfless
35. Moments I am selfish
36. What I struggle with
37. What comes easy to me
38. These people I love unconditionally
39. These people I trust with my life
40. These truths I live by.

Mind you, half of the items on this list were given to me in the form of a workbook by my aunt right after graduating from High School. I squirrelled it away and have revisited and tweaked it over the years. It is cleansing, challenging, frustrating, and inspiring all at the same time.