So, you have some sort of responsibility. It may be work related, voluntary or maybe you plan on taking more responsibility in your own life.

How do you make sure that you have momentum, and a direction according to where you want to go?

Lets consider this: You lead a team of motivated people. You want to make sure the team is getting somewhere.

Get a vision
So what do you do? You need a vision, a higher goal. Point of having a vision, is to say “this is the direction we are heading».

Examples of vision for a team might be: «We are going to be the leading sales team for this company in this specific area». For a personal vision «I am going to become a distinguished doctor».

There is a whole lot to say about this point alone, and theres a lot of articles on the web about how to form a vision, my advise is thus, to start with a dream and build a vision.

Since a higher goal often is quite abstract, you want to break your vision into parts. I call them targets.

Set measurable targets
So, break your vision into measurable targets. You want to measure the momentum and direction of your team. Are we delivering accordingly to our vision?

If you would like to use a business term, it will be similar to a «Key Performance Indicator».

Some measurable targets for your sales team may be «the amount of sales this period versus last period» and «the increase in sales relative to the other top performing sales teams»

Set actions
Actions are where we lose the abstract ideas and get concrete. Specify what you need to do to be able to get to those targets. This is where you brainstorm and get input from other sources. Make sure to get input from people who have come further than you.

My point for today
If you fail at setting a vision or a course, you are probably heading for a mediocre result. It will be harder to know how to measure success. In my opinion this applies especially when you are leading a team, a department, or the likes, but these things are also of worth in what you want to achieve in your personal life.