I’ve worked on my bucket list, looked forward, imagined the possible, set the goals. However, it’s easy to get caught up in the future and fail to recognise the past. The many achievements you have managed to accumulate in your time on this planet should be recognised.

So today,  I’m taking a moment to create a reverse bucket list. A tribute to what I have survived, endured and ticked off the goal setting list already.

You might want to head back to whatever you were doing, this “ain’t I great” list won’t necessarily rock your world, but this is my self-development project so naturally, it’s all about me.

1. Went from country/to city/back to country and managed to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of each.

2. In the frantic “I’m going to have a career” phase I learnt about PR at TAFE, studied for a Journalism Diploma at night and turned up for work in breakfast radio. Apparently I wasn’t much fun to live with, but that’s irrelevant!

3. Bravely ventured into University as a mature-aged student (I was all of 26 but trust me that’s vastly different to 18) and despite a slight detour to get married and have a baby (six months then on with the job) I walked out the door with a BA (English Lit/Theatre)/BEd. Which I promptly popped in a drawer and never used, but let’s not get picky.

4. Survived my own morning sickness nightmare to give birth to two slightly puny, but otherwise healthy daughters.

5. Raised those daughters to a point they can be seen in public without too much embarrassment (in fact we are now at a stage where I’M the embarrassment to be with in public). Young mums you do get to revenge those two-year-old tantrums in the supermarket and that whole “running away from mum” stage which saw you leaving a trail of shopping behind as you sprinted after a disappearing child.

6. Got through the stay-at-home mum years. Seriously, they should award medals, I did 10 years!! Reinvented, rejigged, readjusted on a daily basis and learnt a lot about myself in the process.

7. Run a small business from home where I developed skills in taking customer calls while rocking a baby and making peanut butter sandwiches for the toddler clinging to my legs.

8. After brushing the rice cake crumbs out of my hair I found an outfit that wasn’t stained with baby spew and took to the job interview circuit. Got myself a stressful job back in radio and somehow re-acclimatised to working in an office.

9. Took the criticism of not knowing enough about social media to heart and created a blog which continues to grow slowly, but surely. Anyone want to get email updates when I post? Sign up now, please, pretty please.

Take a moment to think about your reverse bucket list, what would make it to your list of “been there, done that, got the t-shirt” achievements?