Top tips to fine tune how you reflect on your progress

Track and appreciate how far you have come.

As you start implementing your goals, keep notes of what you do and what you are getting out of it. This helps you fine tune your approach as well as appreciate how far you have come. Over the course of a year, I find sometimes my goal posts shift along with me. And when that happens I might not fully appreciate the amazing journey. Does that sound familiar?

If journaling with words is not your thing, get creative. I have seen people colour in squares, noted things down in colour of increasing saturation etc. Whatever works for you.

Checking in with your progress also helps you find the derailers that throw you off course.

This is a bit less freeform than other aspects of journaling. When you are setting goals and next steps, check in for how things go, what you did or did not do. And what prevented you from doing this. And yes, this will over time give you a list of your favourite excuses. This is painful and potentially annoying but infinitely helpful to then start disarming these so they don’t keep popping up. Everyone has a few key ones and it helps to know them to deal with them. Competency frameworks, metrics etc can also be useful (best combined with feedback too) if this is something work-related where this applies.

Also useful: Separate the “what” and the “how” as you track progress.

Often we do something really well in the way we do it but don’t achieve the outcome. Or we think we are super successful (achieving the “what”) but leave disgruntled people in our path as we neglect the “how” (and we all know people like that and wouldn’t want to be that person).

You want both to work, and when things are not going well, we sometimes have one of the two we overemphasize. Figure out what this might be for you and how to mitigate that.

Definitely to include: Be grateful.

What worked well today? Who helped you? What did you learn from them? What did you achieve? What did you follow through with? Write this down. Often, we just focus on our shortcomings, but not on what we already do.

And then it is also time to celebrate your progress milestones. If others were helpful (and likely there are going to be lots of people), say thank you and include them in your celebrations! 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author. All articles published on Life Coach Directory are reviewed by our editorial team.

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