Our journey toward achieving a desired outcome is filled with seemingly infinite experiences and challenges that we must overcome. Although the obstacles may seem larger than the successes, this is an illusion. Learn to make the effort to notice the gradual changes that are occurring. Failing to recognize progress can be devastating. If we havent fed ourselves with heaping compliments and recognition for having overcome the last challenge, then were stopped dead in our tracks with nothing to pick us up when we collapse at the next obstacle.

Keeping written records of your positive behaviors, inspired efforts and successes along the way is a powerful tool. Spend a little time devising a simple plan to document your daily action steps. Find a way to note the positive experiences, the things you enjoyed. There is an old childhood song that says, Count your blessings, name them one by one. What great advice! What we focus on is what we receive more of.

Here are a few things to think about as you measure your success:

1. List the moments of joy along your chosen desired outcome.

2. What are you learning about yourself as you face each new obstacle?

3. Are you allowing personal satisfaction from your efforts?

4. Are you growing self-love, self-leadership and accepting self-responsibility along this journey?

5. Are you gaining self-confidence?

6. Are you listening to and trusting your body more often?

7. Do you smile and laugh more each day?

Examples:
Measures of Success

1. Be conscious of how you feel emotionally. Track positive emotions as they occur by keeping a small memo pad with you at all times. For example, youre driving home and tempted to pull into the drive through even though you are not hungry. Instead, you managed to wrestle with the steering wheel and keep the car moving forward. At the next stop light, pull out your journal and list the success! How does it feel to have put forth the effort to align yourself with your desired outcome, and follow through?

2. Record Achievements. Keep a daily progress report of effort spent toward achieving your desired outcome. This daily report could be as simple as a daily horizontal line labeled 0 to 100. The 0 means absolutely no time or effort was directed toward the movement of a desired outcome. The other end of the scale could be defined in advance. For example, 100 means I spent at least 1 hour writing on my book each day, 10 minutes sitting quietly and breathing each day, 30 minutes focusing on excitedly envisioning my outcome, etc.

3. Give Yourself a Golden Star! Each time you allow yourself to act on a particular chosen effort, place a star (or some other brightly colored sticker) on your day planner. For example, you could track each day you exercised, or each time you ended a meal comfortably full, or each binge-free day. At the end of each week, youll have a colorful visual display of how successful you have been overall.

4. Develop a Success Strategies Scrapbook. Begin collecting useful tidbits and nuggets of information that you find helpful. Everyday we run into information on the internet, tips in magazines, ideas from friends, etc. Collect them and paste them into an ongoing motivational journal.

5. Daily Success List. At the end of each day, create a list numbered from 1 to 10. Fill in ten successful thoughts, strategies, ideas, and achievements you accomplished that day. It may be hard at first because you are not used to recognizing your own positive actions, but stick with it. It will have lasting rewards.

These are but a few ideas of how to measure effort and success. These thoughts are nice to read and may help get your own creative juices flowing. What is most important is following through. New habits dont happen on their own. To achieve success requires taking the time and putting forth the effort to build effective self-leadership skills. Once the skills are built, you most likely wont need the tools and techniques any longer. But until then, our responsibility to self lies in physically doing the actions that create new patterns and success. If any of the above ideas sounded good to you today, take the effort and follow though. Then, immediately recognize your ability to move forward on your own behalf. Celebrate!