Two Words - Check Milestones

I remember the first time I drove to Shagamu from Lagos, I did not know where to turn off the express so I stopped to ask for directions. Imagine my shock when the man I asked said I was about to get to the Ibadan toll gate. Many of us have heard of the saying, if you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there. But in this case even though I knew where I was going and I ended up at a surprise destination. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever been surprised that you did something you didn’t mean to do? Has there been a time when you said, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would… Well, if you want to be better at predicting the future, here is my advice: Take Note of the milestones along the way.

When you are travelling, milestones are those green and white posts you see on the road between two states, that tell you how close to a destination you are. Take the story of Chichi. She was an intelligent young lady who gave herself a target of 6A’s in her 300 Level, 2^nd Semester exams. It was three weeks into the semester and she just got 3/10 in an assignment but she was not fazed. She was telling her best friend Shade why she was not concerned. “Continuous assessment is just 30% that’s not my priority, I will spend the last two weeks before exams sleeping in the Library to ensure I get a minimum of 65/70 in all exams, so even if I get 10 over 30 in my C.A, I will still get an A.” She was expecting Shade to encourage but instead, she looked at her with a disappointed look on her face and said “Chichi! You are not getting 6A’s this semester.”

“What do you mean by that? Back to sender!”

Shade explained, “Chichi Just because you have a strategy for getting an A, does not mean it is the right strategy. Your continuous assessment scores are your milestones, they show you your understanding of a course. If you are not passing them, that is a sign that you are not on the journey to an A and you need to change direction as soon as possible. Figure out why you got 3/10 and start working towards getting 10/10, then you will be on your way to an A.” Don’t ignore your milestones, they are the validation of your strategy.”

The End

Shade is a good friend isn’t she? So like Shade let me say:

-          You want to know if you are on your way to getting that promotion at the end of the year?  Check your milestones

-          Are you going to meet your target next quarter? Your weekly reports can predict that.

-          Is your business going to be bigger next year? The feedback from your clients are your milestones?

-          If your relationship keeps having the same issues don’t wish them away, take note of them and do something to solve it.

The things you are doing everyday are a better prediction of where you are going than the things you would like to do someday. We can all predict where we are headed if we take note of the milestones along the way.

If you hire a driver and he has bashes the car and lies about it in the first week, money is missing the second week, he missed 2 days of work the third week and he tells you in the fourth week that he filled your tank for N20,000 (when you usually fill it with N5,000); do you have a right to act surprised if by the 6^th week he runs away with the car completely?

So:

Don’t ignore the sign posts on your way…Observe Them

If your milestones indicate you are going in a direction you don’t want…Turn Round

Your short term results are a good indication of your long term outcomes…Take Note

Every dream and every goal has milestones along the way but they won’t all come screaming out saying ‘here I am’. Don’t wait till your reach your destination before you find out you made a mistake with your strategy, you will know when you are veering off course if only you decide to always…

Check Milestones

So where are you going and how do you break your goals down into milestones? You can post your comments on the Poise’ Graduate Finishing Academy blog (poisegfs.blogspot.com) or send me an email to uki@poisenigeria.org, I always enjoy reading from you.

I am happy to introduce Eric’s Employability Expedition. There is a lot to learn from his story and every week we will join him on his journey to success, it promises to be an interesting ride powered by Poise’ Graduate Finishing Academy

Thank you