Evaluate Your Successes in 3 Healthy Ways

When we evaluate our successes, it is likely that we will take a negative approach. We can often take “evaluate” to mean criticism, but in this case, evaluation does not equal criticism. At Achieve Potential, when we say evaluate, we mean to understand and celebrate. Celebrate the successes you have achieved thus far, and then determine where you are currently to identify your next steps forward. Let’s break down the evaluation process into three easy steps to make this simple.

1. Think of the Positives First 

1. Write out what you’ve accomplished. – Be it on a piece of paper or the computer. Allow yourself to see what you’ve done so far and celebrate every one of those things. 

2. This list is purely fact-based; if you accomplished it, write it down. 

Recognize that you are making progress and that every single one of your accomplishments, no matter how small, is worth celebrating.

2. Relate to the Weekly Schedule

Now, think of everything you accomplished and how that relates to your weekly plans. 

1. Are you on schedule? Ahead? Behind? 
2. What kinds of obstacles did you face? 
3. How did your plans change or evolve? 

This is a time to reflect on the progress you’ve made so far and what you’ve learned. Doing this will then help you understand and evaluate what changes you need to make in your weekly plans so that you can continue to make positive progress. It will also help you recognize if the expectations you’ve placed on yourself are perhaps too high for what you can realistically handle. 

3. Looking Forward

1. What are your next steps? 

Now that you know all of the things you know now, how will you continue forward in a way that ensures your success? By now, you should have a clearer image of the commitments you should be prioritizing and which ones you can either put off till later or drop altogether. 

Overall, make sure you set aside time so you can do these evaluations once per week.

Planning, evaluation, reasoning and establishing priorities are all more important than brilliance – either behind the wheel or at the drawing board.

– Carroll Smith