Success by Keeping Your Promises, Part 2

Measuring and Tracking 
With your roadmap in place, what’s needed next is a way to measure and track your progress. Knowing what to focus on and committing time and resources to reviewing those goals, is the single biggest challenge that we have in business (and in life). Goals are promises, and promises are commitments. They begin the moment you say yes to yourself or to others. But how do you keep track of these yeses? And more importantly, how do you ensure that these are the things you really should be spending time on?

First, write them all down! Capture all of your commitments, the ones you may have scribbled down on various lists, on your calendar, and the ones swirling around in your head. If you capture them centrally, you can begin to look at them strategically. Many of us have a multitude of projects, to-dos and tasks on the go. Some of these commitments may even be prioritized. However, unless there is a strategic vision that overrides all of your commitments, the bigger, long-term promises and commitments may get sabotaged by smaller, less important tasks which always seem to soak up your valuable time, resources and mind space.

Here’s a simple, but powerful guidance system for measuring and keeping track of all of this:

Identify key promises/commitments. Look at your centralized consolidated list of projects, to-dos and tasks. Identify the ones that are key, that are central to your roadmap. These are your top priority commitments –promises – you have already made to yourself and/or others. As you complete these, you will build upon your vision for success.

1. Develop milestones for achievement. For each of your key promises, develop due dates and milestones to track your progress. Specify target dates and, for those items where you are working with others, specify who will be responsible and what will be done.
2. Have a “check in” and “status update” process. On a regular basis (for example, once every week) take time to check in on how you are progressing on each of these key promises.

At work and in life, YOU are your brand. Your personal and professional success is directly proportional to your ability to make promises and follow through on them.

Craig and Jason Womack are co-authors of “The Promise Doctrine” (www.thepromisedoctrine.com), a guidebook and system for consistently delivering on your promises. As a father and son team, they bring a unique blend of business and teaching backgrounds, and conduct seminars and workshops with small and large companies and organizations throughout the world. Order their book today on Amazon.com - http://www.tinyurl.com/TPDonAmazon.