Glass half full or half empty

You often hear people talking about the differentiation between how they see the proverbial glass; half full or half empty.

It’s used as a pointer about how positively they see life.  I’ve noticed though that there’s another distinction that is worth looking out for when it comes to how you view your achievements or your progress towards your goals.

I’ve noticed that many of the visitors to my coaching room tend to focus on what they haven’t done rather than the things that they have.  On the changes they have yet to make rather than the change that they have.  This then takes them to a path of self criticism and lack of motivation which really doesn’t help them to make further progress.

As such it’s useful to put review systems into place, a method of recording progress so that there is a way to monitor what has really happened, to see the facts.

When it comes to some change we can be reluctant to do this.  We may not want records of how we look when we’ve put on weight or how cluttered our homes have become but by not keeping these records we aren’t always helping ourselves as its good to be able to look back and see the progress we’ve made instead of thinking that there’s more yet to do.

If you think back though, how many times have you achieved something only to wish that you HAD taken that before photo.  You don’t have to share it, you don’t have to pour over it every day.  Instead you could put it in a sealed envelope in your diary so that you come across it in three or six months time and have the opportunity to see what what is different.

How can you measure your progress?  How can you remind yourself to give credit for how far you’ve come rather than beat yourself up about how much you have yet to achieve?