Reasons Why You Need To Track Your Goals

Daily Blog #329

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw

I have always had somewhat of a scattered brain. The type that will think a certain thought, see a shiny object that distracts me, and will then forget that thought once I am able to regain my focus.

It has always been this way. Homework assignments wouldn’t get turned in on time, class projects would be completed half-asked ten minutes before they were due, and there were even a few times where I wouldn’t show up for work for the pure and simple fact that I forgot I was scheduled.

Admittingly, some of these habits carried over into my adult life. While I have got better at showing up to work only because I have the same schedule every day, I am still not the best at tracking my goals or being as organized as I probably should be. You know the analogy “running around like a chicken with its head cut off,” yeah, that would describe me to a tee.

When you are chasing your goals, though, you need to have a system in place that will help to benefit you – a system that not only helps you to keep track of your thoughts but one that will also help you to measure your progress as well. Without a system in place, how are you to know if you are actually progressing, and at the rate you are progressing at?

Like Bernard Shaw said, without change, progress is impossible. We get so confined to doing things a certain way, our way, to the point where are progressing at a much slower rate than we are capable of. That is, of course, if we are even progressing at all.

One thing that I wished I would have learned earlier is that life is not about perfection, it is about progression. If you are not progressing in some way, shape, or form each and every single day, then you are doing something wrong. Every day brings new opportunities, and it is those opportunities that you need to be capitalizing on. You need to be willing to do whatever you can do that is in your control to be a better version of yourself than you were yesterday. That is how you will grow from where you are to where you want to be, and that is how you will succeed in life.

How To Track Your Goals

Tracking your goals and measuring your progress is not as hard as many make it out to be. In fact, it’s rather easy, but only if you start holding yourself accountable for making the change that you wish to see.

One thing that really helped me to get focused was to get a weekly to-do list. Something as simple as an $8 to-do list from Amazon has helped to make a big difference in my life. Every morning before I sip my coffee, I simply list all of the tasks that I want to accomplish for the day. As I complete the tasks, I check them off until I have completed everything that I want to complete.

If you don’t buy a to-do list, start writing your tasks down on blank pieces of paper and fold them up in your pocket. We have very forgetful minds, so if you get into the habit of writing down important thoughts, you can always look back on them in case you forget.

You can even use your phone. If you are reading this, you most likely have access to a smartphone or a computer. Start tracking your progress in the notes section, set alarms for yourself, use the calendar app. Seriously, there is no excuse for why you are not being efficient with your time aside from just being lazy.

Why You Need To Track Your Goals

This all sounds too simple, and that’s because it is. The main reasons why I never used to keep track of anything were because I was lazy, I thought it was “stupid” to write down what I was thinking, and I thought that getting control of my life had to be far more complicated than simply writing down my goals. The truth of the matter is that it doesn’t need to be complicated. And since I have started writing down my goals and track my progress, I have progressed at a quicker rate than I ever had before.  

The human brain thinks right around 50,000 thoughts per day. That is about 2,100 thoughts per hour. You don’t expect to remember each and every one of those thoughts, do you? Of course not. You probably won’t even remember the majority of the thoughts that you thought to be important. You are going to be like the analogy earlier and “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” while trying to remember what it is that you wanted to accomplish.

That is the exact reason why you need to track your goals. Without keeping track of your goals, you are not only going to forget what it is that you wanted to accomplish, but you are also going to be wasting unnecessary time in trying to remember the tasks themselves.

The Takeaway

“People with goals succeed because they know where they know where they are going.” – Earl Nightingale

Life is already short enough the way it is. The more time you spend thinking, the more time you are wasting from actually creating the life for yourself that you want to live.  Don’t take the lazy way out, start tracking your goals, and measure your progress.

Think of your life as a game of how quickly you can get from where you are now to where you want to be. Keep that end goal in sight, give it everything you have, and never settle for anything less than your dreams. This is your one life to live, so be productive and make the most out of every waking moment.

Michael Bonnell

3/25/2019

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