Milestone

Time surely flies….It’s been over a month today since I started my blog. Statistically speaking, this would be my tenth blog and there have been over 500 clicks on my blog. During the last 30 days, I found a lot of friends sharing their thoughts and encouraging me to continue writing. I would urge you to let me know your reactions after reading my blogs by using the Reaction Buttons, if not actually posting your comments. Also, feels nice to let you all know that one of my blogs “It’s ok to fail, sometimes” got posted on motivateus.com website on Diwali (05/11/10)...Folks,  I thank you for taking out time to read my blog. Your comments are solicited, so please do post how you felt about the discussion.

Milestone

The first example of a Milestone which comes to your mind if you have travelled by road, would be the milestone every kilometre on the highway to the destination. The milestone keeps telling us how much of the way we have travelled and how much more  to go.

Well, its been over 9 good years that  I have been working in the banking fraternity and this one word ”MILESTONE” is the basic element of all Target Planning & Execution.

I read the world famous book Dr. Stephen. R.Covey’s “Seven Habits” and I refer to the Second Habit which talks about “Begin with the End in Mind”.  

I quote a few lines from this chapter of the book... 

“When we begin with the end in mind, we have a personal direction to guide our daily activities, without which we will accomplish little toward our own goals. Beginning with the end in mind is part of the process of personal leadership, taking control of our own lives. All things are created twice. We create them first in our minds, and then we work to bring them into physical existence. By taking control of our own first creation, we can write or re-write our own scripts, thus taking some control and responsibility for the outcome.”

Once we know where we want to go, how do we track ourselves versus the targeted projection? Breaking this target into hourly / daily / weekly / biweekly / monthly / 6 monthly/ annual reviews, as the case might be, ensures that we are regularly checking our progress. The more disciplined we are in meeting our milestones, the higher our chances are of meeting our target.

I would want to highlight that Milestones are not necessarily related to our professional lives only. It is in fact required even more in our personal lives. For eg. – learning  a new language  or reading a particular book by June 2011. Other examples – turning 18 years old is a major milestone in a youth’s life / finishing Graduation / getting married / getting the first job / retirement etc.

It is very important to not just keep MILESTONES but also ensure that we are tracking it as well. Also, it is very essential that we celebrate our milestones. So how are you celebrating yours ?

I leave you all with the famous quote by the great Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

So fix your goal and just set out on your Milestone with your “FIRST STEP”.  Remember to enjoy your milestones on the way. Godspeed !!