One goal-achievement tool I just started using is a scoreboard. It’s very easy to create and maintain. You make a page to score your progress towards all your measurable goals for the year. A scoreboard is nothing more than a table with 3 columns. The first column is a list of your goals. The second column is where you are now, your current reality for each goal. And the third column is where you want to be at the end of the year for each goal. The specific time frame is arbitrary. Fill out the scoreboard for all your measurable goals, and then put it somewhere where you’ll look at it every day. Update it weekly.

Some of the things I measure are my weight, body fat %, web site visitors, income from this site (currently $0), number of speeches given, number of articles written, days per week I meditate, number of info products released, and mailing list subscribers.

I also add a 4th column to the scoreboard just to show the difference I have left to go between my current reality and my goal.

Furthermore, if a goal isn’t easily measurable, then I just give it a rating on a scale of 1-10. That helps to objectify progress towards highly subjective goals. So if you want to improve your relationship, and you currently rate it a 4, while your goal is a 9-10, then you can see you still have a lot of work to do on that goal, whereas if you rate it an 8, you know you’re getting very close.

I like that my scoreboard gives me an immediate snapshot at a glance of how I’m doing on all my goals. I see all the numbers — the hard data — in one place. This helps me determine where I need to focus my efforts for the coming week. It only takes a few minutes a week to update all the figures, so it’s not particularly burdensome to use.

One refinement you might also consider is adding an additional column for the % complete. But many of my goals don’t fit the percentage model, so I opted not to do this. It’s something to consider though if most of your goals translate well to percentages.

Keep score, not to compete against others, but to know where you stand.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he's awake right now.

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