Progress: You’re Either Making It or Breaking It
When I try to do too many things at once, I make a little progress on a lot of things. But the needle on any one thing doesn’t move very far. Everything makes a blip. Nothing explodes.
But, whenever I’ve achieved something solid, stable and sustainable, it happened in part because I put a strong focus on just that one thing. Exclusive Focus on specific goals accompanied by measurement and deadlines are extremely effective ways to begin making progress.
Just talking about your vision and goals won’t do it. If you don’t align those with where you actually spend your time, money and energy, then you’re breaking progress, not making it. Any time you’re not absolutely intentional about how you allocate all your resources, is time wasted.
So, as you busy your life making plans, these are concepts to keep in the front of your brain every day. Otherwise, how will you be sure that you’re heading in the right direction and realizing the outcomes you intended in the first place? One of the most effective habits to build is watching where you are putting your resources. If they’re not supporting the goals you’re truly focused on, then you’re not moving the needle at all. And if you’re not getting to where you want to go, you’re either stuck or lost.
If I could tell every young person one thing, or even people who are not so young, it’s that they should do whatever it takes to figure out and decide upon their life’s purpose. If they do the hard work necessary to discover that, then all of their decisions will be much easier. Knowing what their purpose is guides their goals, their choices, their career, and everything that is truly worthy in living this life we’ve been given.
However, if they don’t take the time to think about any of it, then life swallows them up pretty fast. Unfocused careers, un-managed relationships, and chasing tangible rewards or just plain vanity, runs out the clock on many of us and we lose our perspective along the way. Think of it this way, if you go sailing without a rudder—or purpose—it’s impossible to reach a worthwhile destination safely. You’ll either drift or be taken out by the next storm that comes along. The end result is someone who’s battered and torn by life.
Within every moment of your time spent, every decision about how you spend your energy and your money, you are making a statement to the world about what truly matters to you at the deepest level. A great pastor once told our congregation, “You can tell what’s most important to a person by simply looking at their checkbook.” Your spent resources are the path you leave behind and form the direction in which you’re headed.
So how do you Make Progress in the direction you want most. There’s one question, think of it as a tool, that helps you test whether your strategy is the most effective approach. It also monitors and measures your ability to Make Progress over time. This question forces you to articulate which of your beliefs need to be proven true in order for your focused strategies to succeed.
Ask yourself this: “What has to prove absolutely true for this to work?” In most organizations, leaders rarely think about whether or not to pursue new opportunities by asking this one, simple question. Individuals almost never do. Instead, we often unintentionally stack the deck against ourselves from the beginning, almost ensuring failure.
It’s unfortunate, but many of us make decisions to move ahead with a project or idea – or even our lives! – based on what initial projections or assumptions suggest will happen, or that we wish will happen. But then we never actually test whether those initial projections end up being accurate. No matter what evidence is presented, people just keep going without adjusting, believing that if they keep themselves “crazy busy” and moving at a fast pace, then “I must be making progress, right?!” Wrong. Busy does not equal progress. Movement does not guarantee arrival. Consequently, they find themselves at the end of the line, finagling projections and assumptions to fit what actually happened, rather than making and testing thoughtful choices before they get too far along.
The same is true in your life. When you decide to take a course of action in pursuit of your life’s goals, ask yourself the same question, “what has to be proven in order for this to work out?” Then, check back in against your assumptions frequently and regularly. Are they correct? Do they line up with your chosen life’s purpose, choices, and goals? If not, it’s time to reassess before going any further into spending resources – time of which is the most precious – that you can never get back.
On the other hand, if you’re Making Progress and getting to where you’ve chosen to go, excellent! I can’t wait to see what amazing things you’ll do.