Goals: Measuring Your Progress in Three Easy Steps

Let's say you hop on a plane with your significant other for a long-anticipated vacation in Bermuda. Your pilot gives you the standard greeting at take-off, and you enjoy the rest of the flight munching peanuts, and watching a movie. Fifteen minutes before your scheduled landing, your pilot comes back on the intercom and says, "Sorry, folks. I forgot to check the navigation, so instead of landing in Bermuda, we'll be landing in Iceland."

Chances are, you'd be less than thrilled. Now you're going to have to spend your precious vacation time booking a flight out of Iceland!

Funny how ridiculous that sounds when applied to this scenario. But many of us do the same thing with our business and personal goals all the time. We aim in the right direction, jump in, and then don't look up again until we either get there (by some stroke of luck) or we are so far off course that we have to call the Coast Guard to save us.

One of the most motivating - and overlooked - elements of goal-setting is measuring your progress. Measuring your success on a regular basis may sound like extra work, but, as our flight scenario illustrates, it has very real concrete advantages:

Here's my three-step approach to measuring progress:

Define Your Units of Measure.

If you've set your goal to be specific and measurable, the first step is to define your unit of measurement. If you want to lose weight, are you going to measure pounds lost, inches lost, or the size you can fit into?

If you want to grow your business, are you going to measure the number of customers, the number of products released, or the dollars coming in the door? If you're having trouble deciding on units, return to your higher-level objective to see what your end desire is, and then select accordingly.

Set Your Schedule.

Once you've decided on your units, determine how often you're going to measure your progress. Sometimes, more frequent measurement is better. But sometimes, checking in too frequently can actually discourage you. Figure out a realistic amount of time, based on your goal and your units of measurement, to see some change. Then schedule those check-ins on your calendar.

Evaluate.

On your appointed check-in times, do a brief evaluation of your progress. Get on your scale, check your sales, or look at your customer list. Then ask yourself if you're making the progress you need to get the results you want.

If so, wonderful! If not, why not? If you haven't lost an ounce, have you been changing your behavior to be more active and eat better? If you haven't gained any customers, have you been advertising, marketing, or looking for joint venture partners?

Evaluating what you've done, or perhaps what you HAVEN'T done, will give you a good idea of what's working and what's not. Evaluating your progress will get and keep you motivated because you'll actually be paying attention to the fruits of your labor.

If you've been taking the right steps, but aren't seeing the results you desire. It may be a matter of having chosen the wrong goals.