Prepare for evaluations

When determining your goals, you can only go by your best guess as to what processes will be required. For example, if your goal was to lose 20 pounds in the next six months and your weight hasn't changed an ounce after half a year, you might reconsider your method, such as exercising four times per week instead of only twice or eliminating carbs from your diet.

To use another one of Peter Drucker's wisdom: "You can't manage what you don't measure." To put it another way, if you want to know if your strategy is working, you must track your progress. Measuring helps you hold yourself accountable and can expose flaws in your strategy.

If you see that some things aren't working or that you're missing steps entirely, you should go back and change the configuration. Consider your personal development plan to be a dynamic, breathing thing that you may change as needed.

Set up a specific time for your evaluations, say, 30 minutes per month, where you just focus on analysing your success and planning your future moves.

You should ask yourself:

• What has proven to be effective?
• What did I complete that I'm proud of?
• Where did I have difficulty?
• Where do I stand in terms of my long-term objectives?
• What do I want to concentrate on next month?

You'll be able to change your strategy based on your responses. Taking your time to examine the process will also make your progress more visible, which will boost your motivation.