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This is the third of four articles that share what I learned from my informal poll on tasks, goals and balance (first article, second article, fourth article). The exact form of the questions changed slightly as calls were made, but in general it was three questions and some follow up questions after each.

How do you track your goals?

This was my only consistent follow up question. I asked it when someone said they do set goals. And I had two common answers:

1. Well, I don’t really look at them again after I set them (and a couple, ohhh, yeah, I should probably do that).
2. Yes, and here’s how…

One thing I noticed is that people who work for direct selling companies (think Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, etc.) are much more likely to have specific goals and track them. Granted, in most cases these goals are set for them – a certain number of sales or recruits or some combination needed to stay at their current level in the business.  And generally, there will be a personal website that they log into to see their progress.

However, the main point is: they track their goals. Why do their companies make it so easy for them to track their goals? Because they know that it will help them be more successful.

Why should you track your goals? Well, the best analogy I can come up with is losing weight. If you decide to lose 4 pounds in one month what do you do? I’m guessing that you come up with a diet or exercise plan (or some combination) and weigh yourself so you have good starting point.

Then you periodically weigh yourself throughout the month to see how you’re doing. At the end of week 1 you expect to lose 1 pound. If you don’t – you know you need to review what you’re doing and make a change or two. Tracking your progress allows you to make tweaks to your plan so you have a better chance of success.

Tracking other goals works the same way. If you have an income goal over the next two months, track it in a place you look at every day. It will do two things:

1. You know exactly how you’re doing on your goal
2. You’ll have a visual reminder of what your goal is (and that can be pretty motivational)

There are lots of different ways to track your goals. Here are a few ideas:

1. You can use a simple piece of paper with each day of the month (or months) written down the side. At the end of each day you record your income for the day and the total so far. This way you’re looking at your goal every day.
2. Create an empty thermometer that you fill in as you go along.
3. Create an excel spreadsheet. A quick note here, if you aren’t comfortable with excel or you are very comfortable with it and will spend a lot of time playing with it – you might want to choose a different method.
4. Find an online program to use.

Face it, if you know how close or far you are away from your goal – it will allow you to change your plan if and when necessary.

How do you (or will you) track your goals?

This is the second of four articles that share what I learned from my informal poll on tasks, goals and balance (first article, third article, fourth article). The exact form of the questions changed slightly as calls were made, but in general it was three questions and some follow up questions after each. This article is about the second question.

I was happy to learn that a lot of people do set some sort of long term goals for themselves or their business (long term here being more than a week). However, I’d wager that a majority of the people I talked with do not write their goals down.

Personally, when I don’t write my goals down I forget them, or forget some of the details. I might accidently give myself an extra week or month to complete the goal or dial the goal back slightly without realizing it.

So, I write them down and look at them at least weekly. Why? Well, if I don’t then I have the same problem I mentioned above. Or I realize that there’s one goal that completely fell off my radar. Kind of an “Oh, I was going to do that too?!”

Which brings me to a reason that some people don’t set goals or if they do, don’t write them down: we’re afraid we won’t reach them. If we don’t write them down then we can change them slightly (or forget about them) and not beat ourselves up about it.

Want to know a secret? Your goals aren’t set in stone! Write down your goals down and review them at least once a week. If your priorities have changed – you can change your goals!

There are a couple things I want you to do if you decide to change or drop a goal. First, write down that you changed it. Write down what the goal was and what you changed it to or if you removed it. Anytime you change a goal, add it this list. Second, review the list. Why? You’re looking for patterns. Are you constantly changing or removing goals around a specific area? If so, one of the following things might be happening:

1. The goal didn’t have well defined steps. For example, you decided that you wanted to earn x amount of money in three months, but you didn’t write down specifically the steps to take you there.
2. You have some resistance or fear around the goal. Perhaps you’ve decided that you want to make more phone calls and talk to more people, but every week you find more important things to do instead. Baby steps are fine! Take a look at what is reasonable for you. For me, making 30+ phone calls in a week freaked me out, but making 10 or 15 seemed daunting, but doable. Heck, if 10 or 15 is daunting to you, make five instead.
3. Maybe this goal just isn’t for you! Be really honest with yourself though and make sure that your gut is telling you your energy is best used elsewhere (instead of acknowledging that the real reason might be #2 above).

Do you write down your goals? If so, where (paper, online program, calendar, something else)?