Keep a running list of who you’re becoming, not only what you’ve achieved. That list is the one you’ll reread.

Achievements are easy to record because they come with dates and names attached. The other kind of change has neither: getting steadier under pressure, learning to apologize properly, turning into somebody who follows through. Those shifts happen slowly and leave no receipt, so they go unlogged and therefore uncredited, including by you. A year can hold a lot of real change and still look empty on paper.

Start a second list this week beside the usual one. Write what you handled differently than you would have last year. Reread it in December, because that is the list that will mean something.