Measuring your progress for the goals you've set is the second part of the SMART Goals method. After all, you won't know if you're making progress or gaining on your goal without a way to measure it. When progress is measurable, you can track how far you've come, keep focused, and stay motivated by celebrating the small milestones you complete along the way. To facilitate assessing your progress, you'll need a set of criteria for the measurement of progress.
Similar to the Specific step used in SMART Goals, you will need to answer a few questions regarding your goal as a criterion for measuring progress data:
How many?
How much?
What is the indicator of progress?
How many or how much refers to progress as an indicator of what success for your specific goal looks like. The progress gauge signifies how you decide to track the progress you have made. This varies significantly depending on the goal. If it's a business goal, maybe the indicator of progress is gross sales. Or it might be the number of pounds lost per week if your goal is to get to a healthier weight. Tracking how far you've come within the plan is essential because it will keep you focused on your ultimate goal. Motivation is maintained by the ability to celebrate the milestones of the progress you have along the way.
Using the same goal as above, to lose 10 pounds by exercising more. More precisely stated, "I will go to the gym to work out for 45 minutes every weekday morning before work, to lose 2 pounds per week." Now that the goal is specific and clearly stated, we have added the quantity of measurement for the objective, 2 pounds per week. In this case, the indicator of measurement would be the scale. In the arena of business, an example might be, if the goal is, "I will build brand awareness through social media, to increase gross profits by 10% per month." The quantity of measurement and indictor is the profit increase in comparison to previous months.
Putting the SMART Goals method to use has proven to produce a higher success rate for goal achievement. Measuring your goals is an integral part of this process. When you track your progress, you will have the ability to stay more motivated towards your goal and keep a stronger focus.
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