Measure your progress in inches not miles

When you start working on building new habits and systems in your life, you will get to a point where you aren’t further along than you wish. You will feel stuck. You will question the path and wonder when it will all pay off.

The reason is simple. When we switch from focusing on the outcome, to working on the processes, we have a lot to change before we start to see the rewards.

It isn’t instant. It is a slow process. But the process is built to last. This means that it might take longer for the new habits to stick, but once they do you don’t have to keep solving the same problems.

As you solve problems others will rise up. Some people get discouraged and feel as though problems are everywhere. They wonder if they are making any difference.

In these instances, the best approach is to continue to focus on progress. Keep working on making progress. Don’t get too caught up in new problems. Those are “next level” problems. The reason you experience them is because you have reduced the lower level problems. These problems now have the ability to surface.

But this isn’t a bad thing. Those problems were always there, lurking, waiting for the perfect time to come out. But they never did because other, bigger problems took our focus.

So, driving through our initial problems brings new problems. Continue to attack those problems with the same systems thinking. Soon you will have created the right systems and habits to keep them from occurring.

The other thing to consider is that early on, you won’t see a lot of results. This is because you took a step back to tighten up the foundation. You refresh the fundamentals. Then you solidify those.

This takes time. But keep with it. It will start to flow more naturally, and you will start to see improved results. Initially you need to keep making progress.

In those early days, progress is small. You will see additional steps taken but won’t experience the rewards you anticipate. Instead, it will feel like you are inching your way along.

You want to move faster. You want results to be measured in the miles. Yet all you see is inches. The answer is simple. Don’t measure your progress in miles! Measure it in inches.

You may want to earn your MBA to get a better career but are frustrated with your Managerial Accounting course. Or you may want to start a career in the trades but don’t know what apprenticeship to focus on (e.g. ABC Heart of America). You may want to play music in front of others but can’t seem to master certain scales. All these require progress. But at times all will seem like you are making progress in inches instead of miles.

Early progress is crucial to build the right foundation on which you will build. You will ultimately leverage these new patterns to create even more value. But you can’t skip this step. You can’t skip building the right structures.

These structures are what will take you towards the success and happiness you desire. But don’t expect them to be built overnight. It will take time. It will take consistent effort. It will take patience.

Don’t mistake having patience for accepting complacency. If you are continuing to work on the systems and habits, you aren’t being complacent. You are building the right routines. You are building the right patterned behaviors. You are building the right thought processes.

To avoid complacency, don’t allow yourself to stop working the system. The systems are the key. Keep working them. Keep improving them. Keep growing them. It might start with inches of improvement but will eventually turn into miles of growth.