A Life Measured In Metres
What language do you use to tell your progress is happening?
A friend we were staying with was having his floor levelled.
In the course of the chit chat of him setting up to do the job of laying the self levelling scree, the inevitable question of ‘how is business?’ came up. He is apparently doing well. He knows this because of the metres that they’ve been asked to lay. 4,000 here, 12,000 up in Birmingham, and 40,000 in somewhere else. All these metres they’d been asked to lay made him know that business was, indeed, going well.
All this made me think about how all of you ‘measure’ or know how well you are doing.
I know that traditional business coaches can make you focus on the revenue, or the profit as the way to know, and don’t get me wrong, that’s absolutely necessary. But it’s usually not the MAIN number. I’ve recently taken on a few new people, into my Shine & Rise Café, and as individual clients. One of the first things we talk about is that wonderful question of ‘what does success look like to you?’
I invite them to identify their most meaningful number as something that they can use as the simple way to know how to ramp up or indeed celebrate progress.
For one person, it’s the number of connections they make on a weekly basis. For another it’s the number of canvases he’s working on at any given time. The number of proposals that have been requested. The social engagements they have booked in the diary. The number of members in a membership. The clean smell of the house on a Saturday after doing the work. Seeing the number of genuine smiles in a batch of photographs when I come to edit them (‘because then I know I’ve put them at ease’ – this from a photographer). All of these are measures that are meaningful.
So I’m inviting you to think about what that number or knowing really is for you.
For me, I know I’m making progress when I get booked to speak to a group of people. Twice a month and I know I’m doing well. This also is true for referrals. I spend much of my time working on ways to make those two numbers increase. I know when I have 2 talks, and 1 referral a month in the bag, that I’m doing well. The personal measure is that I’ve got one ‘gig’ booked in within the month that I’m looking forward to seeing – one play, band or person. I get grumpy if I don’t have that to look forward to. When there’s something in the diary, my heart feels light and I know I’m on track.
How about you? I’d love to know.