How to Stop Your #1 Goal from Fading Away

Anytime is a great time to set new goals for yourself or your business. You don't need to wait for the New Year to make meaningful change in your life.
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We all have dreams and we all have visions of how we can do better in the future. Then why is it so difficult to follow through and actually achieve such goals?

A big obstacle for too many of us is that we don't like keeping score. We don’t like tracking our progress or making notes along the way. It seems too labor intense and perhaps a bit too mechanical. Checking off a box every day certainly doesn't seem exciting.

But do you know what else isn’t exciting? Watching a football game without knowing the score. Despite the action and intensity of the game, sports without the score become boring. The truth is, score keeping matters and it will help you get to the finish line and achieve what you started.

We are familiar with scoreboards at sporting events. The largest numbers on a scoreboard are usually points and time. It's pretty simple. At just a glance you can see which team is winning and how much time is left in the game.

Keep Score to Stay on Track

When it comes to your own goal tracking, the same idea should be intact. What exactly are you tracking and by when must you complete those tasks? You need to be able to see this quickly and easily. Or else your interest in the goal will fade just like a scoreless football game.

​In the example below I have a simple scoreboard for someone who is wanting to land a new job. Of course there are many activities that go along with a successful job search. But these 3 are perhaps the most important.

The key to fulfilling this job search will be to meet or exceed the numbers which have been set on the scoreboard. This person will be able to tell immediately if they are winning or losing the job search game.

Set Yourself Up for Success

Another key to successful scorekeeping is to set your targets for weekly totals instead of daily totals. Why is that?

We all have an "off-day" once and a while and may not be able to meet our daily numbers. Whether its sickness or a family emergency, there is a good chance you will miss some of your daily goals. As a result, this can lead us to disappointment even when things out of our control have affected the results.

But by focusing on weekly measures, it allows you to catch-up and continue to meet your numbers even if you have a less than ideal day.

​So no matter what your big goal is right now, be sure to keep score. Set your targets and measure your progress along the way. If you don’t, then you really can’t say if you’re winning or losing.

Question: What tools do you use to stay on track with your goals? Leave your answer in the comments below.