Improving your performance: targeting your emotional attachments

If you are looking to improve yourself and the results you get, you need to take stock and evaluate what worked and what didn't. You can tell if you are on track in a sales situation if you made your sales figure target, or if your savings are on track by the numbers in the bank. But what of other ways to measure your performance?

• Do you keep a diary or journal or fill in a gratitude log or the 100 day challenge workbook or similar?
• Do you ever review what you have written in those pages?

I feel it is an important part of the review, reflect, change and growth cycle that we do, just to see if we are on track.

One of the reasons we created the 100 day goal achievement challenge in a workbook format was so you could go back through the days and see where you on target and where you needed a little bit of extra work. But for it (or any other system) to work - you need to work it, you need to use it and you need to do so on a regular basis.

Do you make a note of how you "felt" at the time of writing? Why would emotions and feelings be important? Well they play a huge part in what we say we want to achieve and what we actually do achieve. You may not say in so many words - but your choice of words will give you a good indication of your moods at any given point in time - assuming you've written it somewhere.

I spend some time every day evaluating my performance. (BTW I never ask you to do something I am not doing, or not willing to try myself) - now these measures may not work for you, but it is important you spend time and work out what your measures are, otherwise how will you know how you are doing and how far you still have to go.

• Did I work on my projects and goals today - did I achieve more or less than I had said I wanted to achieve?
• Did I manage to convey the right message in my emails, e-zines and newsletters? Were they of a professional standard? (Subjective I know, remember these are my personal measures - and I can be my harshest critic)/
• Of the phone calls I made or received, were they of a professional standard, did I leave the other person feeling good about the call / interaction?
• Of the face-to-face meetings I had, did I do as well as I know I could do? Did the person(s) engage with me? Did I listen without inerrupting them? Did I answer their questions / concerns?
• Did I eat "properly"?
• Did I exercise?
• Is my budget working correctly? Did I have any "wasteful" spending? (think impulse buys)
• What did I read / watch?
• Did I use my time effectively during the day or is there room for improvement? And
• How was I feeling - emotionally?

What measures would you add?

I know that when I am feeling up and positive I can do ANYTHING I decide to do. Everything is easy when I am in a positive mindset. On the other hand if my emotions are a little flat, if something has knocked me from my centre usually illness or injury (sports) - my output is definitely less. But when I am feeling "down" I struggle to do anything other than get through the day. Sometimes that's Ok, sometimes it's just your mind and your body telling you to take a breather, but if those feelings remain on the low side, what can you do?

This is another reason to keep it all in writing. Go back and see if you can pinpoint the trigger. If you can pinpoint the trigger you can avoid it in future. Putting it into writing may help you see what you can't otherwise remember.

If you haven't reviewed your performance yet this year, please consider spending some time this weekend and going back over what you did, what you didn't and how you felt as as a result of, and because of events.