Are You Making Progress: Feb Check-In
The theme for 2024 is Joyful.
Each project below is a leading measure established to help create a joyful year. Too often, we develop goals and either go charging towards them without pausing to confirm that that is the direction we want to go. Or we don’t take time to break down the goal, causing us to feel overwhelmed and abandon it a few weeks in.
By establishing leading measures, we have a better chance of reaching our goals and making it easier to pivot when we notice that we’re not on track or might be going after the wrong goal.
Make sure that you use lead measures to help you reach your goals.
Lead measures are specific actions that directly influence the desired outcome or goal.
Lead measures are:
- Actionable: They are actions or behaviors that you can directly control or influence. For example, if I want to sell 100 books, I need to determine what I can control that will affect that number, so I might write three emails and then track sales.
- Predictive: They have a solid connection to the desired outcome, making it easier to predict progress. Example: If I want to publish three books this year, I might track that I must draw 100 or 10 pictures monthly.
- Focused: They target specific aspects or factors that contribute most significantly to the desired outcome. Example: Reading books is helpful if you want to write books; however, reading more books doesn’t substantially impact my desired outcome of publishing three books this year. A more focused goal could be to create three book spreads each week.
February Project Progress
Pizza Project 52:
Read last month’s update to find out the details of Pizza Project 52. In the previous month, I’ve honed in a system to send out invites and keep track of who is coming and when, along with any food allergies. More importantly, I’ve gotten more comfortable extending invites, and we’ve continued to see how many people are looking for more community and connection and, of course, good pizza and ice cream.
Progress: We hosted 14 new people in February, bringing us to 30 people over the last two months.
A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words Project
To stay on track with this goal, I should complete 20,000 words/pictures each month, so completing 11,000 for the month puts me a bit behind. While I may be a bit behind, my progress did help me to achieve two more significant goals.
- I launched my new course, The Breakdown: Creative Planning School [Words]
- I designed, wove, and installed two woven Roman Shades [pictures]
Progress: In Feb, I completed 11,000 words/pictures, getting me to 34,000 words in the first two months, keeping in mind that the goal for the year is 240,000.
100 Things Project:
This project started as a playful way to clean the house; however, two months in, it’s helping me notice more.
I’m paying attention to what I have, and things I used to find annoying lying around the house now are a new opportunity to use or give away. It’s also amazing how many things went unnoticed until starting this project.
For example, I could find everything I needed to create two Roman shades. While I could purchase the recommended parts, I looked around the house and found items I could adapt and use in the design. If I hadn’t been doing this project, I may have purchased the recommended supplies and missed the opportunity to notice and use what I already had and do some creative problem-solving.
Progress: We used up or got rid of 10 things in Feb, a total of 32 out of 100.
What is a goal that you’re working towards? What are your lead measures?