As we are nearing the end of another year, today might be a good day to get your ducks in a row (for those not from the Midwestern USA, this means to “get your life organized” or “get things done that you’ve been delaying”).  So, how about considering these helpful hints:

1. Are you on track to accomplishing what you had planned this year?  What do you hope to accomplish in the new year?
2. Have you sent an encouraging note to anyone you work with lately?  Why not right now?
3. Have you thanked anyone that provides support to you or your team lately?  There has never been a better time than today.
4. Are you keeping track of examples to use for your year-end self-appraisal or review at work?  Spending a few minutes on this ahead of time can save time and anguish when you complete your assessment.
5. Have you begun thinking about goals and metrics for 2016?  You may need to collect data now to ensure that you establish the correct targets for new year objectives.
6. Have you spent time with your mentor or mentee lately?  Don’t neglect these important career relationships.
7. Have you spent time with a friend lately?  You may only have a handful of true friends in a lifetime.  Take a moment today to make a call or send a note or take that friend to lunch.  Please don’t find yourself looking back someday wishing you have remained that true friend.
8. Have you encouraged a coworker that might need a kind word lately?  You surely know of a coworker experiencing a work or life challenge.  A word from you might change a difficult day into a truly good one.
9. Have you called your spouse from work lately just to tell him/her that you love them?  Go ahead and give it a try today.
10. Have you followed up with a teammate on progress relating to an important project?  Ask if there is anything you can do to help.
11. Is it time to change your automobile oil, replace batteries in your smoke detectors, or spray around the house to kill those pesky ants?

12. Do you have accumulating paper, magazines, or other trash around your desk that needs to be discarded?
13. If you have a mother or father living, would they appreciate a call today?  How about a brother or sister?  Anyone else?
14. What would make today a remarkable day for you?  Is there something you can do right now to make that possible?
15. Do you make it a practice to attempt to add value to someone’s life each day?  This one change might actually change your life.
16. Is there someone that you need to forgive or seek forgiveness from?  Today is a great day for a new beginning.
17. When you look at your life objectively (and, I mean truly objectively – as in how others see you), do you seek to be more of a giver or taker?  When you converse with someone else, do you spend more time talking about your weekend or asking how the other person is doing?  If you own career more important than helping to advance the career of someone else?  In short, do you truly care for others?
18. Did you come to work today committed to doing your very best work?  Did you come here today to do your very best for our patients?  If not, are you really sure this is where you want or need to be?
19. Have you ever done a truly anonymous act of kindness for someone else?  By this, I mean an action that makes a difference for someone else, but one that will never be tied to you.  Can you do it?  (Remember the quote: “You can never consider a day a perfect day unless you have done something for someone else that could never pay you back.”)
20. Have you told that one person most responsible for any career success you are experiencing right now thanks and expressed your appreciation?  I dare say that most of us has at least one individual for which we could say, “I wouldn’t be here in this position or having this success without you.”  Today is the day to thank that person.

Remember… today is the only day we have been promised.  Don’t delay what you know you need to do today!  The time is right today to consider how your life might be different when the calendar turns to 2016.