When I was first starting out in the brokerage business, my sales manager called me to his office one day. He asked, "How are you doing this month?" Being young and enthusiastic, I started into a long and detailed explanation of all the calls I was making and all of the appointments I had set up. However, my boss cut me off immediately. "Eric, what I want to know is how many accounts have you opened up this month and how much have you earned in commissions?" I responded that I didn't know exactly but that I was having a good month. To this response, my boss simply shook his head and said, "If you don't know exactly where you stand, how do you know if you're having a good month? Remember, winners keep score."

That was more than a decade ago, but I still remember his words today. Winners keep score. Well, as the end of the year approaches, it's time for each of us to tally up our results for the year. If you're like me, you probably set some aggressive goals for 2004. Well, before you sit down to set your goals for 2005, it's time to keep a little score. How did you do in 2004? Did you meet your goal to lose, say, 40 pounds? If not, how close did you come? Did you meet your goal to, say, double your income? If not, how much did you increase your income by?

Think about it. It makes absolutely no sense to go through the trouble of setting goals and writing them down (you are writing them down, right?) if you're not going to follow up on them. Yet, that's what many people do; particularly when it doesn't appear that they've come to close to reaching the goal. They put away their list of goals and try to forget all about them.

Of course, that is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing. They should be tallying their results to see how close they've come to reaching the goal. For one, we often underestimate just how much progress we're making. We're simply too close to the situation. In a sense, we're like parents who don't notice the growth in their children until a family member who only sees them once a year points it out. In the same way, you might discover that you've made much more progress than you thought.

Winners Keep Score (Part II)

For example, let's say that your goal was to make an additional $50,000 this year. You're pretty sure that you didn't make the additional $4,000 per month to reach this goal. However, if you go through your old pay stubs, you might discover that you made an additional $15,000 this year. Now, certainly, that is a far cry from $50,000 but it's something.

The second reason that it's important to keep score is that it helps you make adjustments. These adjustments are critical as you travel towards your goal. In fact, this is precisely how an airplane makes it all the way from say, Los Angeles to New York. The flight crew files a flight plan (their written goal). They then plot a course and take off. However, they don't just go to sleep and wake up six hours later to land. Instead, they constantly monitor the aircraft's position relative to their goal. Are they on course? Are they on time?

Interestingly, the answer to these questions is almost always "No." Believe it or not, the airplane is off-course and off-schedule 90% of the time. However, by keeping score, the pilot can make the adjustments necessary to make sure that you land in New York at precisely 2:30 pm, as opposed to landing you somewhere in New Jersey sometime that afternoon.

Well, we must use a similar approach if we ever hope to land in our place of success, wealth or happiness. We must keep track of our progress towards our goal and make adjustments when necessary. Without this kind of feedback, you're really just flying blind.