The One Secret to Success Everybody Ignores
What keeps us on the path to success?
When we take responsibility for our personal growth, we become more successful in all areas of our life. The question is, how do we do it?
Write it down.
An important part of responsibility is self-reporting. Self-reporting means tracking our activities, measuring our performance, and noting if we have achieved our goals. Start with writing down your commitments for the week. Record them in a daily diary or calendar. Your commitments don’t have to be detailed, and you don’t even have to separate personal commitments from business commitments.
Check it twice.
Now here’s the secret: Check your list multiple times during the day, beginning in the morning. Go over the tasks you have committed to this week, and make time in your calendar to accomplish them. Check back at lunchtime to see how you’re doing. At night, go over each commitment and see how you did. Ask yourself what kept you from keeping some commitments, and make a plan to accomplish them the next day. Then celebrate the commitments you did keep.
Treat yourself.
You can learn to love what you may have thought of as tedious. For example, think of your daily reports as scorecards. Just like managers reward employees for accomplishing goals, reward yourself for every commitment you keep. Add up your scorecard at the end of the week, and celebrate the results with your spouse or good friend. Show that person your scorecard, and share next week’s goals. Another way you can make reporting enjoyable is by creating a map or chart that shows where you are, where you want to be, and the milestones you need to check off along the way.
Be honest.
Finally, be honest with your reporting. What could you have done better? What do you need help with? What are you grateful for? Talk to God about all of these things. He cares about your personal growth and will mentor you if you let Him.