Congratulations you set a goal
Setting a goal worthy of investing your life in is a major accomplishment. Celebrate. You are now in the top 10%. Setting the goal is not the same as achieving the goal. You need an action plan. You need consistency in your action. That is still not enough. You need metrics.
Metrics provide intermediate milestones to celebrate
Achieving a life-long goal is like running a marathon. Metrics are the mileposts along the way that show tangible proof you are progressing. They provide intermediate goals to strive towards and reasons to celebrate along the way. When I ran my first 10k, I would have never made it thinking about the finish line. When my side began to hurt and I was gasping for air, I would focus on an object just at the edge of my view. I would monitor my progress towards that object. Getting there gave me encouragement. I had a small mental boost. I thought, "One more down. I can do one more." That process took me all the way to the end.
Metrics measure the effectiveness of your action plan
Activity is not accomplishment. Doing something is not important. Doing the right thing in the right way is essential. Metrics provide the mechanism to determine if you are doing the right thing. They help ensure you do not get side tracked. Life throws a lot at you. It is easy to focus on the urgent but that does not mean you are doing the important. Metrics will show when you are busy but not progressing. Metrics give you a signal it is time to correct your daily routine.
Active Rain provides a set of metrics
My goal is to grow my business online. That will certainly not happen overnight. One intermediate milestone is getting traffic outside AR. Back up from that and it is showing up on the Google search. A step back from that would be having people read my posts and commenting. You can daisy chain that back to your AR rank, Points and post views.
In my first week and with the help of AR members, I have already reached some of my first milestones. I posted my first 10 articles. I have more than 10 followers. I am number 3 in my city and closing in on the top 100 (141 out of 1,953) in my county and top 1000 ( 1,468 out of 18,466) in my state. I have my first 1000 page views on my posts. These things in themselves are not important. They will not bring me clients. They do however show that I am progressing in building an online presence.
I am thankful that I have found Active Rain and look forward to the continued journey.
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