Congratulations! We've managed to make it to the half-way point of this first month of this new year.
That said, we've also managed to make it past that frantic first couple of weeks where a lot of people take stock of their lives and projects... and then set goals, intentions, resolutions, aspirations (or whatever you like to call them) for the new year.
This year, I even participated in one of our community challenges and made my primary financial and work goals "public, and in writing," through @theycallmedan's LeoFinance challenge at the beginning of the year.
I find that doing so increases my inclination towards accountability.
Whereas setting goals is a nice idea, goal-setting is only useful as a tool for self-improvement if you regularly assess your process of — and progress towards — reaching them. Otherwise, you just went through a pretty meaningless mental exercise that's likely to lead to... nowhere. As I am sure you know, very few of people's so-called "New Year's Resolutions" actually succeed!
I am always amazed by just how many people will set all manners of goals at the beginning of the year, but when you come back and ask them how they are doing — let's say, in mid-May — they don't even remember the specifics of their goals.
Not entirely related, over the past couple of years, I have been diligently trying to become a "financially responsible human being" again, as part of which I have been trying to raise my credit score (perhaps only an important thing, here in the USA) from the dead. This is the result of Mrs. Denmarkguy and I setting as a goal that we wanted to become "credit worthy" enough to be able to qualify for a Home Equity Loan by the end of 2022... the house will need a new roof, in a few years and the likelihood that we would actually have $15,000 of cash sitting around are pretty much zero.
Well, that credit repair is more than just wishful thinking," and part of the process is that I diligently log into my Credit Karma account on the 1st and the 15th of every month to to keep tabs on our progress.
But I digress...
Keeping an eye on things!
For this year, I set myself a number of goals for my micro-businesses and part of the process of (hopefully!) reaching those goals is checking in with my actual progress once a month... a process that also allows me to spot where I might have been too ambitious, or not ambitious enough. Furthermore, it allows me to determine where "things are WORKING" and where things are not in case I have to change the way I have been doing things.
With my Hive-based/writing goals, I like to check in every couple of weeks to simply "put a pin in the chart" on a regular basis. It's tempting not to because we like to think we know where we are "more or less by FEEL" but actually making physical note of points reached makes me more likely to stay on task.
I am not sure entirely why, but "charting progress" seems to be a heavy burden for many people... perhaps because we don't like to come face-to-face with our tendencies to let things slide. As the saying goes "out of sight is out of mind."
And yet? Charting our progress is a pretty essential practice, and one that has been with us for centuries across many walks of life: Think of the explorers and traders of old who would travel globe in search of new lands and riches. I'm willing to bet they charted their progress very diligently.
You can't really hope to reach where you want to end up, if you don't know where you are, at any given moment!
So, for all you New Year's goal-setters out there, remember to keep track of how you're progressing... even if it is a bit "boring" sometimes! It'll really help you get where you're going!
Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
How about YOU? Do you revisit your goals regularly? Do you actively chart your progress? Do you find it makes a difference/no difference? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20210115 13:33 PST
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