Here are some interesting lists. Each of them is fleshed out in a blog post you really should read. I'll give you the lists so you know you want to read them.

First, Ted Neward on 10 Things To Improve Your Development Career:

10: Build a PC.
9: Pick a destination
8: Be a bell curve
7: Learn one new thing every year
6: Practice, practice, practice
5: Turn off the TV
4: Have a life
3: Practice on a cadaver
2: Administer the system
1: Cultivate a peer group

Some of those are metaphors: I'll let Ted explain them.

Then, we have Jim Carroll and How to Get Faster When the World is Faster:

• build up experiential capital
  
• master collaboration and share
  
• focus on tactical to strategic transitions
  
• fuse generational insight
  
• take on anticipatory projects
• be a farmer
• displace indecision
• implement quicker
• think bold

The advice is aimed at entire companies, but I think it can resonate well with an individual. Again well worth the read.

And then there's John MacIntyre and 11 Personal Programming Assumptions That Were Incorrect.

1. The customer and user are the same person.
2. You isolate and kill all bugs without exception.
3. Writing beautiful software as an act of craftsmanship.
4. Working 24/7 would be rewarded.
5. Vendors can be believed.
6. You are not actually working from the monitor.
7. That I wasn’t a very good programmer.
8. You need to / should grok a language or tool before you even start.
9. You don’t say you know something unless you’ve grok’d it.
10. Other programmers saw beauty in their work.
11. The best programmer is recognized.

There's some cynicism in there, but others might call it realism. I suspect most of this you have to learn from experience, but perhaps you recognize a few?

Kate