Start. Complete. Repeat. ~ Team Pure Intent

This week we touched on the importance of setting goals in our business as well as in our personal lives. Within our day-to-day planning we can plan out what we’d like to experience, set a course to achieve it, and maybe share with others how we did it so they too can do the same. Getting a better understanding on what a goal is and setting ourselves up for success to achieve it made us realize the possibilities of some loopholes that could present itself and what to prepare for if plan A doesn't work out the way we planned.

Goal Setting: Why?
Goal Setting: Plan For Everything
A Goal Setting Mindset
Evaluating Goals

Set up a specific date to evaluate

Now that you've gone through all this trouble to create goals and set them according to a timeline, the next step is to evaluate your progress. If your goals are not testable, then they are not measurable leaving you to question if they are concrete goals or not. Evaluating your progress helps you stay on top of your efforts and points out those areas that may need a little tweaking.

Goals are concrete but flexible plans to accomplish your dreams

Give Yourself a Way to Measure your Progress

Keeping track of how much time and energy you spend on attaining goals are simplified when you log them in one place to document your activity. Use a composition book or designate a binder with loose-leaf paper to write down your goals and track your status. Logging your activities and looking back on them on a consistent basis can inspire you to keep going even when you are experiencing little to no results. Whatever your goal is, you need to figure out how to measure your progress and document your successes and/or trials.

Expecting Results? Inspect what you Expect.

The two ways you can evaluate your goal setting progress is to evaluate your progress daily and then to evaluate your progress monthly or quarterly. With this attention to detail, you’re sure to gain success with any goal you set out to achieve. Every one to two weeks, give some time to answer a few questions:

Are you sticking to the plan?
How can your plan be improved?
Have you needed to use Plan B?
If so, how did that work out for you? What did you modify?
Has the outcome of your results met up with your initial expectations?
If so, explain. If not, why?
What measures will you take to meet those expectations?

The monthly or quarterly evaluations should be focused on your long-term progression rather than your short-term progression. Answer these questions:

Are your plans moving you in the right direction? If so, explain.
Is your ultimate goal still the same, or are you considering a change in direction?
Can you think of any ways to improve upon your original plans?
Have your business goals crossed over into your personal goals and vice versa?
What are you learning about yourself through this process?
Which of your qualities and habits still need improvement?
Are you beginning to think of even larger goals you can achieve now?

Setting goals is crucial to any business, but it’s only the first step. To be successful in achieving those goals, you have to constantly evaluate them to determine if they’re validity and measure your progress toward them. Above all, you won’t be able to achieve your goals without a plan, but you can’t create a workable plan until you've evaluated your goals to ensure they are worth the effort.

Onward and Upward!