"You can do it!" "Go." "Yes!" The importance of validation is evident in every sporting event when the hero-athlete rises to the occasion...the occasion of the crowd cheering, that is, and wins the game "for" the fans who scream their appreciation. Every speaker I've ever met says that a good portion of the reason they like public speaking is the crowd's validation. We've sought validation from our parents and select others throughout our lives. Validation provides an equal measure of "I'm right!" and "Way to Go!" that is just like a perfect martini: intoxicating while encouraging you to get another dose (of validation).

When you have a coach or an audience of some kind, you may be able to get your validation from others. But, when you are in the more common position of needing to be your own coach, you also need to supply your own validation. You need to be your own cheerleader. You need to be the one who observes and comments, appropriately voicing negative or positive messages. Of course, you need to replicate the feeling of getting appreciation from the crowd or your coach, a special feeling due in part to their honest, albeit frequently fickle, appraisal. It's the audience's candor that makes earning their applause so worthwhile.

How do we replicate that honesty and candor? How can I believe myself when I am shouting encouragements? After all, aren't I biased? And, if I beat up myself for what I view as a disappointing performance, day after day, am I really simply being unfair? And, is either voice helpful? Well, it's important that we can believe our inner coach whether the message is positive or negative. Therefore, we need proof and therefore we need to keep track of things.

Most people I meet bristle at the notion of tracking anything, especially if they have to show those results to a boss or someone else. They don't want someone else armed with the tools to micromanage, or worse, judge negatively. And they don't want to bother writing down what they just did ("Isn't that a waste of time? I could be more productive without all of this recording.") I used to share that bias. Until I learned the secret: you need to track things in a way that allows you to see yourself as "winning" as often as possible. It is important to create a measuring system that gives you unending ways to keep coming up with something that you have done well. You will be far better at undeniable self-praise if you are setting new Personal Bests (of some category) every day. You still need to try hard and work hard and will still have set backs but they will be at least a bit balanced out by a steady stream of "favorable press."

For example, as a swimmer, I keep a log book where I track the total distance and individual parts of each day's workout. Since I use a digital calendar, I can switch the view from monthly all the way down to the granularity of each day's swim. On a day that I have an embarrassingly short or slow workout, I can switch to the monthly view and simply judge myself by the number of days that week or month that I swam. In other words, I can give myself credit for attendance. And, isn't that, in the overall scheme of things, more important than anything else? On the other hand, if I swam anything faster, longer, etc., than I have done previously, I can see that, too. With the right view, I'm suddenly like a baseball fan who loves every player's stats: I can celebrate the swim, best set or best total workout of the week, month, season, life. In fact, almost every day, there is at least one category to celebrate, even if there are things to criticize. If my stroke has fallen apart during a part of that day's practice, I can focus on improving it next time within the context of knowing that I am not a complete loser, but instead a winner who happened to spot an area I could improve. Finding the right balance between good and bad makes accepting the bad possible. Pointing out the areas that need improvement, while celebrating some other positive is what the very best coaches seem to be able to do to and for us. And, using the empirical evidence of data in a log book ensures that both the negative and positive messaging is fair, honest and balanced. Just like a real coach or audience would supply if there was one with you all the time.

I try to apply the same science of tracking to my sales, and every goal I am pursuing and I encourage you to do the same. If you do, here are 8 tips that may help you get the most mileage from your log book:

1. Use a calendar that you can easily find each day as well as use and update.
2. Get a streak going: once you get into a pattern, and have several days, weeks, months in a row of some desired activity going, you will find the desire to maintain the streak compelling.
3. Track enough details that you can always find something to celebrate without making it too difficult to complete each day's data. At minimum, you should be able to easily view attendance. (or equivalent category)
4. Every so often, look back to the beginning of the log book. You will no doubt spot trends and areas of improvement that occurred so gradually, that you would have missed it had you not been tracking.
5. Keep targeting a new area of improvement while discovering a new data point that you can celebrate.
6. Don't wait until you have the perfect system in place before you begin tracking. No matter what you do, you will improve the usefulness of the tracking tool over time.
7. Give yourself credit for tracking things everyday! You are now in the 1% club (the top 1% of all performers who are so professional, so driven by improvement that you track your progress in a log book)
8. If you have a role where you evaluate others by their log book, remember what works best for the person who coaches themselves.

Steve Bookbinder - March 2009
Page 2