Intro: Goal setting is imperative to self improvement, but is only half of the equation. Goal Tracking provides insight, accountability, and a clearer path for the future actions. This essay seeks to provide the framework for short/medium term (100 days) goal setting and goal tracking.

Body

Life is a journey of a trillion little steps. Who and what we are is the culmination of everything we've done. A good way to illustrate this with addicts. It's very rare an addict wakes up one morning and all of a sudden has no friends, no money, and no way out. You think how could you let yourself get this far? They took a million tiny steps in the wrong direction. Each step took them an unnoticeable amount toward dispair. A singular step might not mean much, but when you add all the steps up it becomes almost insurmountable to get on the right track. This same idea can be used to improve your life as well. Doing a lot of little things to further your goals will pay huge dividends in the end.

Goal tracking is not just tracking the progress of your goal, but tracking what you do to progress your goal. It's paying less attention to how many steps you have left to get to your destination, and paying more attention to the steps you are, or aren't, taking. In order to track your goals you first need to set them. For this post we are looking at short to medium term goals of 100 days, but the strategies here can be used for goals of any length.

Goal Setting:

A good short/medium term goal has 4 parts:

1) Area of Concern- This is deciding the type of goal. It could be losing weight, saving money, approaching women, weight lifting PRs, GPA, etc. The only stipulation is that it has to be something measurable and definable. "Become better looking" is not a good goal for these purposes because it is not easily measured and is highly subjective.

2) Current measurement- Take stock of where you're at. This step Is important to help you set realistic goals based on what you've done in the past. Weigh yourself, check your cumulative GPA, get your body fat checked, look at your bank account.

3) Goal measurement- This is where you want to be. This is what you want to accomplish. This goes hand in hand with the next step of setting a time frame. Your goal measurement needs to be attainable within the time frame. Losing 100 pounds in 100 days is not realistic, nor is saving $50,000 on a salary of $40,000. On the other side losing 5 pounds in 100 days or saving $50 is simply setting the bar too low. However, this should be something you are fairly certain you can attain.

4) Time frame- Set a deadline for the goal. This is very important to hold yourself accountable.

I want to lose 15 pounds in 100 days. I want to save $1500 in 100 days. I want to cold approach 200 women in 100 days. I want to decrease my handicap by 4 strokes in 100 days. These are examples of goals that are objective and easily measured.

Goal Tracking:

As previously mentioned, goal tracking is not simply tracking the progress of your goal, but tracking how you're going about attaining your goal. It looks at what you're doing to accomplish your goal, but also opportunities you missed to further your goal, and things you do to hinder your progress.

A simple daily journal is an invaluable tool to track your goals. start with a goal page. Write down 3-5 goals. Don't overwhelm yourself. People set too many, or too lofty goals and end up quitting because they fee they can't complete their goals. It's better to meet 1 goal 100% than meet 10 goals 10%. Write the start date of your 100 day period and the end date.

Every page thereafter will be a daily entry. Each entry will Answer 3 questions for every individual goal.

1) What did I do today to help me accomplish my goal? This is where you track your tiny steps in the right direction. It doesn't have to be incredibly detailed or eloquent, just a few things you did to help your goal. Eating a salad instead of a burger, running a mile, studying for 45 minutes, choosing not to get drunk, any action you took to get closer to your goal.

Its a possibility that you did nothing to further your goal. Maybe it was game day and you spent the whole day partying and eating shit food and didn't get enough sleep and didn't study or approach girls or do anything positive. Write that. Write "I did nothing today to further my gosl" Thats okay. This is a 100 day goal, not a 1 day goal. There will be days you don't do things to further your goals. You don't need to be perfect; you need to do enough more right things than wrong things to meet your goal. One day shouldn't completely derail your goal.

2) What opportunities did I miss/ what did I do that prevents me from attaining my goal? This is where you track the tiny steps in the wrong direction. Maybe you played video games instead of studying, or impulse purchased a pair of jeans, or made eye contact with a girl but didn't approach. This is a tricky step because it's easy to get caught up in all the "what ifs". It's crucial to examine what you could have done better, but the focus of the journal should not be the negatives.

It's a possibility that you might not have anything to put here. Maybe you studied for 5 hours, approached every attractive girl you saw, lifted with maximum intensity, Hit your diet macros perfectly, didn't spend frivolously, made a sale to every lead. Write "I did everything I could today to accomplish my goal."

3) What can I do in the future to help meet my goal? This question is about correcting question 2. Don't dwell on question 2. Focus on moving forward and improving. Remember: tiny steps. Focus on doing more right things. What's done is done, focus on learning, growing, and moving forward.

These entries don't need to be comprehensive. They serve as a point of daily reflection. You're answering the question "did I do more today get closer to my goal or farther away?" You're holding yourself accountable.

Conclusion:

Setting and tracking goals is the best way to monitor your progress. Keeping goal journals can help you identify not just whether or not you're meeting your goals, but how and why you are or aren't. These journals can really serve as a personal gut check as to whether or not your actions are conducive to your goals.