Here we go. Number one.

Imagine you received this email from your boss:

Please reply to this email with approximately five bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.

Personally, I would feel a combination of confusion, anger, grief and fear, like anybody else.

But there’s definitely a part of me that would have thought, justify my role? Five bullets? Shit, I’ll give you ten. I’ve created so much damn value for this team and this company, five ain’t gonna cut it. Look, if you’re going to fire me for budgetary reasons, I can’t control that. But make no mistake, I do great work. And nobody can take that away from me. Here we go. Number one.

Do you think that kind of response would get me fired? Get me promoted? Maybe just get ignored?

Who knows. But hey, at least I’d go down with my dignity intact, and my inventory on record.

And that’s the mindset we need if we want to grow. We have to think to ourselves, oh boy! I get to make an inventory! This is going to be great. I can’t wait to lay it all out in front of me.

That exercise alone, no matter what the output is, will reinforce my talents and effort. And that will buoy me moving forward.

Resumes are a similar animal. I know that updating them isn’t people’s favorite activity. But I always found that task to be critical as part of the transition and job search.

That’s exactly when you want to take inventory. When your job is on the line, layoffs are impending, you’ve just been fired, or when you’re feeling trapped in your job and ready for a new chapter; the smartest move you can make is to see the full arc of your creative journey.

I promise you will surprise yourself. Even if you don’t think your track record is impressive or interesting, try mapping it all in one place. If only to see how it feels.

Maybe you’ll think to yourself, wow, I’ve come so far since college. This ain’t bad for someone at such a young age. Imagine what I’ll do next.

Or maybe you’ll look back over the span of a long career, and the inventory will inspire you to pivot into a new direction. Imagine the leverage I have.

It’s also possible you’ll compile years of creative work into a single list, and realize life was all a pointless waste of time. What have I been doing all these years? I honestly thought compiling a comprehensive lists of irrelevant personal achievements would make me feel better, but now I just want to gouge out my eyes with a tartar scraper.

Fair enough. Taking inventory isn’t for everyone.

Although for the majority of people, I trust this exercise will light a fire under their ass. Either to keep the momentum going, channel the momentum in a new direction, or burn it all down, salt the earth, and see what you can grow from the ashes.

It’s a win either way. Taking inventory has huge upside potential.

The irony is, people avoid it precisely when they need it most. Because it threatens their self concept. They have to confront reality on reality’s terms, and that reality doesn’t line up with their idealized version of themselves.

Maybe the inventory will confirm their suspicions that they’re a drain on the federal government’s hemorrhaging resources, and they don’t actually have ten years of experience, but one year of experience, ten times.

I appreciate that. It’s a survival mechanism when people are already feeling insecure.

So what it boils down to is faith. You have to trust that once you get over that initial hump of existential dread, awaiting you on the other side is well of inspiration, gratitude and pride.

Not pride in the biblical sense, which comes before the fall. But the kind of enlightened pride that fuels your efforts forward with the gasoline of meaning.

I mean, shoot, you’re still here. You’re still breathing. No matter how messy the path has been.

So celebrate your unique journey without judging your fundamental worth. Accept that everything you’ve done has taught you something valuable. And know that you’re not defined by any single success or failure.