I’ve been thinking a lot this week about measuring and assessing progress. As the year winds down I’m constantly reminded of how I’m running out of time to accomplish my goals. You ever feel the same way when December starts sneaking up on you?
You’ve probably heard some old science professor in his white lab coat tell you, “What you don’t observe, you can’t measure, and what you can’t measure, you can’t understand.” He was totally right.
In my classroom measuring progress means giving students assignments, quizzes, tests, and other assessments. Any teacher worth a darn helps students measure their progress by giving real-time feedback for improving a specific set of skills.
Remember the “Kill and Drill” when it came to math. It was a quick snapshot of how well you understood basic math facts. My kids still love beating their high score from last time.
It’s no different when it comes to the military. And not just the “Kill and Drill part.”
Every training event has measurable standards to rate soldiers on their ability to complete certain “warrior tasks” or “battle drills”.
As a leader, it’s my job to assess how well the troops are trained, areas to re-train, and how effective the planning was to begin with. I’m supposed to develop a clear picture of my unit’s overall readiness to complete our missions.
In business, I’ve seen the professor’s statement look more like, “What you don’t measure, you can’t improve.”
It’s certainly true in school, the military, business, sports, and science. Look at anything in life where you want to get better, and you have to know the starting point.
But what about life?
How do you measure progress with your whole life?
[shareable]“What you don’t measure, you can’t improve.”[/shareable]
It’s easy to measure growth in school and in the military because there are clear standards.
It’s easy in business because you can look at your income as you navigate through all your spreadsheets.
It’s even easier in sports where there is literally a scoreboard showing how you rank against your opponent. Not to mention that every other type of statistic is tracked. I’m pretty sure they even track how much sleep a player got the night before.
But, I keep coming back to the question of how to measure life.
Ask me on any given day and you’re likely to get a different answer about my health, or relationships, or how i grew my brain over the last year. (I don’t mean in literal size, just more neural connections).
Sure I can look at overall trends in my journal, but each area of life will inevitably be different.
In the past, when I was doing really well in one area, other areas tended to suffer. Has that ever been true for you?
As the year wraps up, I’ve been reviewing 2016 and looking to measure my progress in these different areas, and my life as a whole.
I’m a huge fan of Michael Hyatt, and he just released a cool tool that does exactly that. It’s called the LifeScore Assessment.
[button href=”https://robbymiles.com/lifescore” primary=”true” centered=”true” newwindow=”true”]Click Here to Get Your LifeScore™[/button]
I know it sounds like something you’d hear at the motivational conference your boss puts on.
But, I just took the LifeScore Assessment and can say the questions really opened my eyes to different areas that I’ve neglected over the past year.
The LifeScore™ asked me to take a hard look at different parts of my life and really be objective and honest by putting a number value on them. This more objective assessment helped me analyze what I thought about myself v. how things really are.
The fact that it’s a self-assessment can be a double-edged sword. You can cheat and push the results any direction you want. But, why would you do that?
It’s really designed to be more a like a mirror. You see what want, but if you’re honest it can be totally eye opening.
Here’s what my LifeScore™ looks like:
[button href=”https://robbymiles.com/lifescore” primary=”true” centered=”true” newwindow=”true”]Click Here to Get Your LifeScore™[/button]
Last year, I was operating at the “Frustration” level and scored a 58. This year I’ve moved up to the “Successful” level thanks to the Best Year Ever course.
The LifeScore Assessment is an awesome tool that, more importantly than giving me a score, gave me perspective on the areas I need to be focusing on in the upcoming year. I was quickly able to see opportunities for growth and what has been working well.
Talk about eye opening.
The assessment itself takes less than 10 minutes to complete, but it will give you a whole new perspective on your direction.
Michael has made it free for a limited period of time here:
It’s the perfect way to measure progress in your life, so you can focus on improving in the next year.
[reminder preface=”Comment: “]I’ve shared my LifeScore™. I’d love to hear how it went for you. If you feel comfortable, share your score below.[/reminder]
