Regularly Reflect & Review Your Progress Towards Success

At some point along the road, you’ll need to take some time out to reflect and review where you’ve got to, what you’ve been through and whether you’re still on track to get to where you want to go.

One way you can determine how you’re doing and where you’ve been is to record your experiences in a journal. Manual journaling is a great way to track your progress, although if you feel intimidated by physically documenting your thoughts then you could always chart your progress by way of a “blog”.

Blogging is a great way to record your thoughts and interact with other people either on a similar journey or who are just interested in following your progress.

A good time to reassess your progress is after achieving a specific milestone on the way to your ultimate goal.  There is usually a natural denouement that comes with any accomplishment - a little bit of “time out,” as it were and you could do a lot worse than use that time to consider what you’ve just completed and how it fits into your overall plan.

Another time to reflect and review is when you hit a stumbling block. As you look at the obstacle in front of you, try to figure out where it came from and why you might not have seen it before you stumbled into it. Also, a little detachment when you hit a problem will often enable you to identify a resource that can provide a simple solution for you.

Often the biggest obstacles appear when you lose sight of your target and you compromise your core values. If an obstacle really is insurmountable then you’ll find that you’ve strayed way off-track from your original goal and now is a great time to either revisit your goals or align yourself back up with your original plans. If you always remember to act with absolute integrity then you will never doubt why you are doing something and will invariably find your way around any obstacles that do show up. Realize that the preservation of an individual’s integrity is the single most important element when pursuing true long-term success.

Finally, when reflecting consider whether your goals have changed since you first created them?

For example, say you were pursuing a goal to become a recognized authority in a specific field within 3 years of setting the goal. If you were single when you embarked on your journey but then met and fell in love with your soul-mate after 12 months and decided to get married, then you might find that both your timeline and your priorities have changed from when you set the goal. That doesn’t mean that you have to give up on your goal, but rather you may want to re-evaluate you priorities and your timetable and extend your deadline by a couple of years so that you can enjoy time with your spouse whilst still moving towards your dream, albeit at a slightly more relaxed pace. You will also probably discover that the “interruption” to your plans makes you a more rounded individual and results in a better, more complete and richer package when you ultimately complete your goal because your spouse might just open up your eyes to things that you just hadn’t even considered before.

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