Progress reports

Remember report card day when you were growing up?

Maybe you were one of those kids who made straight A's in school and knew you had nothing to worry about when it came time to show the folks how you were doing in class. Maybe you made a few A's and the rest B's and C's. Or perhaps you were one of those kids that dreaded report card day because you knew that's when the folks would get to find out just exactly how bad you were doing.

Regardless of which of the above mentioned three groups you were in, whether it was fear or anticipation, there was still always an air of nervous excitement when the grades were being handed out. Even if you knew exactly what grade you had in every category, somehow it was just never real until you saw the letters on that piece of paper spelling it all out in no uncertain terms.

The kids with the good grades would usually brag to their friends and be happy to show their parents. While the ones that did not do so well often avoided the subject when asked and did everything possible to keep their parents from finding out.

Children of course do not really understand the point of report cards. The idea is to give the teachers, parents and yes even the students an idea of how the student is doing in relation to the other students and to compare how they are doing now from how they were doing at previous set points. When things are going fine no alteration needs to occur. But when the student is failing, these progress reports allow all involved to become aware that the child is having problems in one or more areas and needs more focus in those areas in order to achieve success.

It seems that many parents do not really get the point either. The fear of failure or of doing bad that causes some children to want to hide their report cards from their parents often comes as a result of punishment that many parents mete out when their children do not do as well as they think they should. If parents did not act this way, if instead they asked questions, offered constructive criticism and worked with their children to help them get better grades, then the children would be more likely to share the news with their parents, whether it be good or bad.

But progress reports don't end when we leave school do they? They exist in most office places and other jobs. There may be weekly progress reports on specific projects. There are quarterly statements to let shareholders and company managers know the general status of how things are going within the company. And of course there are yearly reviews where it is decided how each individual employee is doing and whether or not to give them a raise or terminate their employment.

There are also many other progress reports in life that you may not be aware of. Whether you realize it or not many of your friends and loved ones evaluate where you are in your life as opposed to where you were say a year or maybe even five years ago. Other people make value judgements about you based on where you are as compared to where they think you should be. Sometimes they will modify their relationships with you as a result of these evaluations.

Just as you really couldn't get away from your report cards as a child you can not escape these progress reports either. Many of the business and relationship progress reports are filled with things that you are never made aware of. As a result you never know how you are doing in the eyes of others and can never use this information for personal growth.

However, if you are willing to be honest with yourself, you can and should at regular intervals compare how you are doing currently with the goals that you have set for yourself. In the last six months what steps have you taken for self empowerment and improvement? Out of the main categories of life, spiritual,mental, physical, emotional and material, what changes have occurred and how do they fit in with your long term goals? Have you reached any of your goals,short or long term? If so which ones and what new goals do you have now? If not, why not? And what do you intend to do about that?