by Sunny Simon
I’m a tracker. It probably started with a piggy bank I received when I was thirteen. Being composed of see-through glass made it the best money keeper ever. It enabled me to visualize my coin saving progress for purchases important to a teenage girl.
Since my youth, I’ve continued to monitor progress made on many different activities. Technology not only increased my tracking habit, but made it easier. For example, the bookworm in me loves Goodreads, a website that compiles books I’ve read and want to read. I also monitor the traffic on my blog, and Facebook sends me all kinds of analytical data on my business page. For many years I have clipped a simplistic pedometer on my waist to measure my steps. Recently I upgraded to a wrist apparatus that tracks my progress in calories burned and monitors my sleep.
The designers of my new tracking device are very clever. When I input my daily goal of 10,000 steps per day the prompt signaled me to “commit.” Get it? I was not instructed to “save,” but rather to commit to achieving a daily goal. They are my kind of people. Inspired by this, the first day of use I nearly wore out the little button checking my progress.
Here is the point. I may not always succeed in obtaining my goal of 10,000 steps, but that hot pink tracking band on my wrist encourages me to try, informs me when my progress wanes and signals me when I’ve nailed it.
Tracking progress on goals is motivational. If you need proof of this, think about your to-do list and the satisfaction derived when you cross an item off your list. Monitoring helps keep you focused with an eye on important data-points of achievement as you move toward completion.
Become a tracker. Try designing a simple excel spreadsheet for monitoring your goal improvement or download an app like Evernote to keep your progress visible on your desktop. A tracking system is also a way of holding you accountable. Remember the step goal commitment I made to my activity band? At the end of the day it will show me numbers telling the story of just how committed I am. Seeing the proof of how I fell short may be disappointing, but also serves to help me recommit.
Have an important goal like the number of sales to close or pounds to lose? Act now. Commit to it in writing, begin tracking your progress and be prepared to celebrate when you reach the goal line.
Sunny Simon is the owner of Raise the Bar High Life and Career Coaching. More about Sunny at www.raisethebarhigh.com
