Progress Check

Do not be afraid to check in and learn the truth about where you currently stand. Testing your progress on something is the only true way to gain a clear, black-and-white understanding of how far you have come and how far you still need to go. Tests are given for a reason. They are the game day for your personal accountability. Progress checks are the same principle as tests. They assess where you are compared to your original baseline or your last progress check-in. Without progress checks, you can succumb to a void of your habits. In this void of habits, you are unsure if what you are doing is accurately and effectively prompting you to grow, or pushing you toward progress. You do not want to be in a void when you consider your personal habits, goals, and dreams. You should want to be on the cutting edge of understanding every granular detail of what you are doing and how it is hindering or improving your performance. Progress checks are the key to unlocking this information. They are the key to continuing down the path you desire to be on. They are the torch in a cave of darkness, they guide you from one room to the next.

Like tests, progress checks can be about any subject matter. If you are trying to lose weight and want to watch what you eat, weighing yourself is a natural progress check. In this specific example, the progress check can be treated daily or it can be every couple of days to account for fluctuations and variance with fluids. Regardless, the black-and-white progress check is the number that appears when you step on the scale. The progress, or failure, is drawn immediately back to your last check-in. If you have lost weight, you know you are on the right path. If you have failed to continue losing weight and your progress checks show a pattern of failing, your habits will need to be adjusted so that when you check in again, you find success.

Losing weight is just one of the countless examples where you can establish a practice of checking your progress in order to encourage yourself and iterate the processes you are using. You can check in with a reading habit, learning a musical instrument, lifting weights, running, cooking new meals, and nearly any other habit can be held accountable through the process of setting up progress checks for you to test yourself. Do not avoid the feedback the progress check displays to you, crave it, use it, and improve with it.