What?
Clearly define where you are now in relation to the outcomes and goals that you have set yourself and in comparison with what success “looks like” to you. Understand your location and the direction that you are facing before you set out on your journey. If you are pointing in the right direction, at least you know that every step you take, no matter how small, is taking you closer to where you want to be.
Why?
If you do not know where you are now, how do you know if you are heading in the right direction to achieve your goals? You need to know your current situation in relation to your outcomes to be able to create a plan that you can execute to move towards the achievement of your goals.
It is important that you review your position to establish where you are again on a regular basis, because as you progress you will encounter new opportunities and challenges , which will result in the need for changes to your approach.
Therefore, know where you are is important to be used when:
- Planning
- Tracking progress
- Adjusting your approach to take advantage of opportunities, overcome challenges and re-align yourself with where you really want to get to
How?
Knowing where you are in relation to your goals implies that you first need some goals! (See influence tool 1: know your outcome for guidance on how to establish your goals).
However, if you do not have any concrete goals, you could list areas of your life that you wish to improve and start by just assessing where you think you are in those areas. This can actually help you to identify further goals for you to work towards, based on an understanding of what you wish to improve.
The biggest benefit of identifying where you are now in relation to the areas of your life that need improvement or against specific goals that you have set yourself is that it helps you prioritise your efforts based on areas of greatest weakness, or based on areas that would be easiest or hardest to fix, and gives you an idea of how far you have got to go to get to where you want to get to, which will help in developing a plan to get there (your route map).
One of the simplest ways to assess where you are in relation to your goals, is to list your goals (or areas of your life that you want to improve), then give the areas a “score” based on your gut feeling in terms of where you are e.g. 5 for great and 1 for terrible. Then write a set of comments explaining why you have given yourself that score for that goal.
Whilst this influence tool is all about knowing where you are in relation to your goal, just assessing your position without taking action will not take you very far – so it is also always a good idea to jot down your thoughts on what you can do to improve things and take things forwards for each area as well, ideally as a set of specific action points.
You will be amazed by how far just knowing where you are will take you. For example, are you even pointing in the right direction? Just knowing that you need to turn around can have a profound effect on your success in business and life – so even if you don't write down any action points, just assessing your current position will take you further forwards than you probably realise.
Below is a simple table that can be used to assess where you are in relation to your goals:
| Goal or category | Current rating | Rationale for current rating | Actions |
| Finances | |||
| Relationships | |||
| Belongings | |||
| Others |
In the table above, I have included “categories” similar to those suggested for the “know your outcome” influence tool. You can replace these with specific goals that you have set yourself to really focus on areas of high priority. It could also be useful to have one version of this that is a high level view of where you area against each category of goals and a more detailed one for each of your goals.
An example
Let's start with an analogy.
Imagine you are travelling to meet someone in a town that you have never been to before. You have just got off a train and all you know is that the place that you are meeting them is in this town.
So – you know you are in the right town. But how far is this location from the train station? Which direction is it in from here?
Just knowing where you are and where you are trying to get to is not enough – you need to know where you are in relation to your destination: e.g. which direction it is in, how far away it is, can you walk it or do you need to get a taxi? Only then can you work out your plan for getting there and how long it's going to take.
The same applies to your own self development. Just having goals is not enough, and even an assessment of where you are now without knowing where you are trying to get to is not enough. However, the minute you start looking at where you are in relation to where you are trying to get to, you will find that you are able to look at what you need to do to achieve your goals. It will become a lot easier to develop a real, actionable plan to be successful in achieving whatever it is that you are trying to achieve.
An exercise
- Print out two copies of the “Where You Are” template.
- Fill in the first template for the categories of your life that you set your goals around (refer to the “know your outcome” influence tool for more info).
- Fill in the second template for any specific goals that you have set yourself.
- For each row, make sure that you have a clear description of why you think you are where you are and at least one thing you will do to move towards your goal or improve in that area of your life.
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