🎯 How to Stay on Track with Your Goals
Every goal needs a monthly progress report
A surprising fact about air travel is the constant course corrections your plane makes to account for wind patterns, weather, and air traffic controls.
A pilot's job isn’t flying from point A to point B but preventing the plane from heading to point C.
Setting personal goals is no different. There are two types of goal setters: those who get off track and those who recognize they are off track and course correct.
If you want to be the latter, you need to check in, make appropriate adjustments, and have alternative plans.
Monthly Progress Reports & Letter Grades
I take an hour on the last Friday of every month called “Monthly Goal Reflection”. It’s scheduled in advance and a must-do for me.
Reflection is about pausing and zooming out. I open a document called “annual planning and vision” where I’ve listed all my goals.
Then I go through each goal and ask one question:
“Am I on track to hit this goal by the end of the year? And if not, what corrections can I make to be back on track?
Along with writing an answer, I like to assess with a letter grade (A to F) for the month.
You want a dose of reality. It's no different than in grade school when your teacher walked around handing back grades from the big test.
But this time getting D’s means realization. A progress report. An opportunity to get unstuck. To review your actions and make adjustments.
Often, goals don't just need adjustments but a recalibration because we set unattainable goals.
Create Three Versions of Every Goal
Instead of setting a single target for each goal, create three versions. Each version is like a different way to score a basketball.
Three-pointers are shooting behind the arc. They are the most ambitious, perfect scenario for a goal. By default, goals are created with this mentality. Then we start shooting behind the arc and soon realize it isn’t easy.
My 3 pointer this year for writing is publishing 24 articles. 2x my output from last year. Hard but not impossible.
But I'll be way off track by June if I’ve only published 5 articles. It might be too late to course correct.
Confidence is fragile. And when we realize we are going to lose, we cut and run.
This is why it’s important to have another version of the goal.
The best basketball players are multi-dimensional scorers. When the 3-point isn’t falling, they pivot.
A mid-range gets you 2 points. It's still difficult but good progress.
My mid-ranger for writing is 20 articles. Still 6 more than last year! Progress! No shame.
And if life goes completely off track (you plan and God laughs) there is always an easy free throw.
My free throw for writing is publishing 15 articles (1 more than last year).
Any ball in the hoop counts. And every point compounds but zero doesn’t.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Want my Notion Annual Goal Template? Hit reply and I’ll send it over.
Irfan
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