Why you should be tracking the progress you make along the way to reaching your next goal

Have you ever set a great goal that you were so excited about, then started off strong with making progress towards it but eventually stopped before you could finish? Unless you’re perfect, everyone has experienced that. One of the biggest reasons this happens is that after we set a goal, we don’t track our progress along the way to the finish line. Tracking is beneficial because it takes your focus off of just getting to the end result and puts it on feeling good about the steady progress you make. So this article will explain how to track your progress along the way to your next goal, and in just 4 steps. Hope it helps!

Step 1 - Set your goal. 

Step one is to have a clear goal and a deadline. For more on how to set and word your goals well, check out this article.

For example, let’s say I get invited to a game night. As usual, I’m dominating every game(flawless victories) and I’m ready to go home until somebody says “Hey. You guys wanna play a quick game of Uno?”. So I stick around to get dealt 7 cards and long story short, I take a brutal loss😞.

When I get home I swear to myself that next time I play Uno with some friends, I’m gonna win. To be sure this happens, I download the Uno app on my phone and make it my goal to win 50 games on the highest difficulty setting.

Step 2 - Figure out what you'll need to get done each month to stay on track.

Break down your goal into manageable monthly chunks. Divide the total reps needed by the number of months it takes to achieve the goal. For my Uno comeback, if I’m aiming for 50 wins in two months then I’ll need 25 victories each month.

Step 3 - Set reminders.

Set reminders on your phone for your monthly milestones to keep yourself accountable(I use the google calendar app). These nudges will keep you on track and prevent your goal from fading into the background. For the Uno story, reminders might look like “25 goals done” or “50 goals done” at the end of the next two months.

Step 4 - Track your daily progress. 

Having reminders to keep you on track to reaching your goal is great, but you’ll only really see that once a month. You’ll also need something that can keep you motivated on a daily basis. For this, the answer is to track your progress as you do reps towards finishing the goal. Make a checklist that counts the reps you’ll need to do. Here’s what the checklist would look like for my Uno wins:

• 10 wins
• 20 wins
• 30 wins
• 40 wins
• 50 wins 🎊 😎 💪🏿

Often, we lose hope in pursuing our goals because we fixate on the endpoint and disregard the significant progress we’ve already made. Tracking is so important because it brings to light the progress you couldn’t see before. Hope the info here helps!

Have a business or personal goal you’re currently going for but struggling to reach? I’ll help you put together a game plan to get it done. You can sign up for one for free at goaldoctors.com. We’ll be happy to help! — from Nick