How do you know if you’re making progress?

If the word progress is unclear, then let me rephrase the question.

How do you know if you’re improving your life?

If you’re not interested in making progress or personal improvement, then you can stop reading here and save yourself some time.

However, if you’re still reading, then let’s continue.

Keeping a personal report card can be a powerful tool if you use it correctly. Your report card doesn’t have to be fancy or overly complicated. In some cases, it can be as simple as a tally or checkmarks at the end of your day. It’s a simple tool to inform you of your progress.

For example, you may have a goal of improving your health, so at the end of each day, you could simply add a checkmark to a calendar or journal for each time you exercise. And then, at the end of a week or month, you review your activity.

The best thing about a personal report card is that you get to decide what you track. The activities or items you choose can be tangible or intangible. For example, an intangible could be tracking the number of compliments you give throughout your day.

If the idea of keeping a personal report card sounds hokey or even daunting, I understand. Hokey because it sounds too simplistic or even strange, but if you ever have the opportunity to speak with any top performer, you’ll soon find that they meticulously track the areas they’re trying to improve. And as for daunting, that might just be the residual memories of school report cards coming back to haunt you.

The best thing about a personal report card is that it can be your secret and stays between you and you. There’s no requirement to share it with anyone, so you can avoid any feeling of judgment or shame if, on occasion, you slip up and don’t perform as well as you’d like to.

So, today, identify an area of your life in which you’d like to improve or make progress. Create a simple personal report card and begin to track your activity. Use your report card to lead you towards the outcomes you desire in your life.

P.S. Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, please share it with one person you love.