How do you know you’re making progress (or not!)

“I’m stuck – I have made no progress since we last met”

My friend had decided that the time had come for her to change jobs . She thought maybe she would change careers. She had ideas  that we explored over dinner and through a few emails. Then it went quiet.

We try to meet a couple of times a year . We always have a lot to catch up on and we make promises that we will try to meet more often …

So it had been 6 months or so since we last were in touch.

“No progress?” I asked “Really? Absolutely none?” ( those of you who know me will know that those questions were accompanied by a “look” of scepticism. As a coach I try hard to keep me and my thoughts out of my questioning but  - sometimes it is not possible!)

She shook her head sadly.

She told me about the conversation with her boss that had led to some new understanding but….. She had started networking and had met some interesting new people and had learned a lot even grudgingly admitting that she now saw the potential but……

After we last met she had  taken time to draw up a list of pros and cons of her current job at the time and was surprised how many pros there were. She still had that in her filofax and I suggested she look at it again. Had anything changed?

The problem with my friend is that she had put  no means of tracking her progress in place  so she had nothing to check back on. If she had set herself some goals she had only done so in her head – and to continue the analogy  - had probably  moved the goalposts. In fact that pros and cons list showed that she could delete one of the cons . She also deleted one of the pros but as we chatted she replaced it with another .

When we are feeling disheartened it is usually easier to say that “nothing” has worked than to try to sort out and recognise what has.

Some people find journalling helpful. Others write down goals. Some will rely on the regular performance appraisal meetings at work ( though a surprising number of people still tell me that there is nothing like that for them!).

For me blogging helps. I write about what is happening to me – what I am learning, who I am meeting, how I am developing ideas, where I am getting my information from. I realised how much I rely on this when my website was temporarily on hold over the past month or so. From time to time I will dip into the archive and it always surprises me how much I have done/learned/moved since then.

My friend has decided to journal. She intends to keep it short and simple – maybe even a few sentences a couple of times a week –   but it will remind her of where she has been and encourage her keep going.

How do you know when you have made progress? If you don’t – what are you going to do about it?