Measure Your Progress, Not Your Results
Finding Happiness in the Pursuit of Goals
“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” -Helen Keller
We all to seem to be chasing results one after the other in the hopes that they’ll make us happy.
I got 100 fans on an article and I thought that would make me happy, it didn't.
I recently passed 850 followers on here and I barely flinched.
I finally finished my 5-day email course I’d been working on for a while and I was absolutely ecstatic for a couple of hours, but that joy quickly faded.
It’s not that any of these aren’t great accomplishments, they certainly are.
It’s simply that results are not enough.
We keep telling ourselves that we want results, but we really don’t. We want progress, not results. And those are two different things.
This is Backed by Research
There was an article published in the Journal of Happiness Studies which reviewed 85 different studies assessing the link between successful goal pursuit and subjective well-being (SWB).
The researchers concluded that there was a significant association between successful goal striving and SWB. Which indicates both greater levels of life satisfaction, and higher levels of positive emotions when striving for goals.
Though what I really want to get at here is that the researchers also noted:
“the association was larger when successful goal pursuit was defined as goal progress, instead of goal attainment.”
Highlighting it is in fact progress we seek, not results.
So, what should be done?
Set Goals That Will Require You to Become More
“The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them.” -Jim Rohn
The thing about achieving great goals is that it’s not about doing more, but about becoming more.
You cannot expect to achieve more simply by doing more. Your time talent and abilities are limited resources, to achieve more you’ve got to become more.
And so, there was another study by Norton and Dunn where they asked a sample of Americans earning $25,000 a year what they thought their life satisfaction would be if they made double the income.
The results tended towards participates believing that they would be twice as happy if they doubled their income.
But go and ask people who were earning $55,000 per year and they were just 9 percent more satisfied with life than those making $25,000.
I see an issue here though — they're not asking the same people.
I bet if the same people doubled their income from $25,000 to $55,000 their general life satisfaction would increase, maybe not by double and certainly not because they’re earning more.
But simply that achieving that feat would require you to become more.
I know in my own life, I’ve had the most satisfaction for life NOT when I’ve had more money or achieved more goals — I doubled my income once, that didn’t make me happier.
But when I’ve been on track of my progress; going to the gym every day, writing every day and absolutely crushing my other habits. That’s when I’ve been the most happy.
So, here’s what we’re going to do: set unreasonable goals that will make people think we’ve gone insane but will force us to become infinitely more to achieve them and then focus on measuring the process to get there.
“Don’t set your goals too low. If you don’t need much, you won’t become much.” -Jim Rohn
Measuring Your Progress
“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” — Thomas Monson
What gets measured gets done, period.
What is a goal you are working on right now? How can you measure your progress in getting there?
Want to lose weight? Want to be a great writer? Great! Start measuring not the results, but the progress it takes to achieve those goals.
Did you go for a walk today? Did you stick to your caloric goal for the day? Did you write the 500 words you wanted to write today?
That’s what you need to be measuring, not the amount of weight loss, not the number of followers or fans.
But the processes you're using to make progress.
That’s where the fulfillment lays and that’s how you build habits which later lead to enormous success.
Focus on you
“Don’t measure your progress with someone else’s ruler.” -Unknown
It’s easy to admire what other people have got and go: “Wow, they've got a fantastic life, wouldn't be great if I could have all that?”
Well, you can have it because anyone who you admire was once in the same position as you are now.
It doesn’t matter where they are. Nor does it matter where you are. You can study how they got what they got, so you can get it.
But you’ll never get it if you don’t start by focusing on you. Stop measuring your progress with someone else’s ruler and start applying what they did so you can one day be at the same level as them.
In the words of Tony Robbins:
“Long ago, I realized that success leaves clues, and that people who produce outstanding results do specific things to create those results. I believed that if I precisely duplicated the actions of others, I could reproduce the same quality of results that they had.”
In Conclusion
“As long as you think it’s all going to be “wonderful and perfect” at the end, you will always be unsatisfied.” -Nicolas Cole
There is no “end” to progress. Results don’t fulfill us.
So, start setting unreasonable goals, measure your progress and watch as you become infinitely more on your way to achieving them.
Focus on you, learn from the experiences others and find happiness in the pursuit of goals.
