Happy June! This month our main focus is tracking our progress towards our goals. How are your action steps coming? By summer, most New Year’s Resolutions have become a distant memory. That’s why we don’t chase resolutions – we chase goals. Don’t let your goal become that fantasy resolution. Have you done a status check lately?
Here are some reasons why you might be slipping up:
- Being exhausted
- Being stressed
- Having too many commitments
- Not committing
- Procrastinating (“I’ll start my diet tomorrow.”)
- Lack of willpower
- It’s not the right goal
After you identify the one or two inhibitors that may be stunting your progress, you’ll be able to overcome them. Your task this week is to begin to consciously keep track of your action step progress.
Ways to Track Your Progress
Write it down
This is one of the simplest tricks you can use to your advantage. Writing down your progress allows you to both keep your goal at the forefront of your mind and hold yourself accountable for meeting that goal. At the end of each day, try writing down each step you took towards your ultimate goal. You may be surprised at either the abundance or lack of ink that ends up on the paper.
Go back
Writing your goals down is only the first step. When you write something down, they’re simply brain dumps or wish list items that never become reality. They only become goals or action steps when you continuously review them, remind yourself that they exist, cross them off as you meet them, etc. Put a bookmark on that page in your journal.
Create deadlines
At the beginning of each week or month, give yourself a reasonable deadline for each action step. The status check then comes from acknowledging whether or not you met your deadline. Reward yourself accordingly (but only when you’ve met your deadline)!
Take time out of each day to reflect
Sometimes thinking is more important than doing. You may feel productive because you multi-tasked during your full eight-hour work day, but how much quality progress did you actually make? It may turn out that your productivity was rooted in answering phone calls, responding to emails, and tidying up your desk. Take time to think about the progress that you actually made towards the goal that you wrote down to achieve by Friday. Are you still on track?
Compare before and now
We say “now” instead of “after” because “after” implies that your progress has come to an end. We want you to use the comparison to motivate yourself. With weight loss, people often take “progress pictures.” In business, you can compare gross sales. With some goals, however, progress is not so physically evident. Take time to think about where you were before and where you are now. Talk with friends and family members about it. Have there been changes?
We encourage you to have a bit of carefree fun in the sun this summer, but don’t forget to run a status check here and there. Next week we’ll talk about making more exact measurements of your progress!
An Invitation
Join me, Debbie O’Grady, for a complimentary Get on Track Conversation. We will talk about your Dreams and Goals and in just 30 short minutes, I will help you get on track towards accomplishing the most important one you have. Schedule your call here.
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