4 Signs That You’re Making Positive Progress in Life

By Stephanie Bruce on October 26, 2016 - Fact checked by Dumb Little Man

by Stephanie Bruce October 26, 2016

Whether you’re hoping to start a successful business or simply looking to live a fulfilling life, progress is an important indicator of current and future success.

But what’s progress to one person may not be progress to the next, so how can you know for sure that you’re making true progress in your life?

Fortunately, there are a few solid indicators that you’re making progress. Outlined below are five of them.

Table of Contents

1. You’re Able to Look to Your Mistakes and Learn From Them
2. You’re Genuinely Happy for Others
3. You Know that Success Only Happens When You’re Open to Failure
4. You’re Willing to Reassess Your Current Situation
5. Your To-Do List is Heavily Influenced by Your Life Goals

1. You’re Able to Look to Your Mistakes and Learn From Them

Mistakes aren’t the monsters that we make them out to be. Instead, mistakes can help us learn a lot about ourselves and the path we’re taking in our lives.

When you’re on a path of progression, your mistakes are an opportunity for change. You can use your mistakes to ask yourself some thought-provoking questions such as what things can be done to correct them, what might you be able to do differently in the future to prevent making them again, and what lessons can be learned from them.

2. You’re Genuinely Happy for Others

You know how much hard work goes into achieving your dream, which is why you’re no longer jealous when those around you reach their goals. When you’re progressing on your own path, you don’t have any ill feelings for those who are doing the same even if they happen to be further ahead than you.

3. You Know that Success Only Happens When You’re Open to Failure

How are you to work out the finer details—and all the kinks involved in success—if you aren’t willing to put yourself out there?

Progress means to continually move forward, even if that forward motion may be met with a bump in the road or an exceedingly high wall. Failure can certainly be scary and it’s okay to feel fear and anxiety! But, openness to failure is the only way you can continue towards success.

4. You’re Willing to Reassess Your Current Situation

It’s easy to trick yourself into thinking you’re making progress when, really, all you’re doing is treading water. If you’re progressing toward your goals, you’re willing to reevaluate the path you’re using to get there.

Of course, this reevaluation takes courage and honesty, because who wants to admit to themselves that they aren’t as far along as they’d hoped? But creating a bit of discomfort in your life by constantly reviewing, rethinking, and revising your goals—and your path towards them—is truly worth it in the end.

5. Your To-Do List is Heavily Influenced by Your Life Goals

You know that change doesn’t happen overnight and empires aren’t built in a day. So, when your life goals make a frequent appearance on your to-do list, you know you’re doing something right.

As previously mentioned, reevaluation of your path is vital to your progression. There is a way to keep yourself in check without going too far off the path, however, and that’s by incorporating your life goals into your daily (or weekly, or monthly) to-do list.

Obviously, you can’t add “reach the summit of Mount Everest” to your daily to-do. Instead, break that life goal down into daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly chunks so you can build up to completing it successfully in the end.

For example, you should probably summit a few smaller mountains before even thinking of attempting Mount Everest, and even further, you should probably train daily to get into peak physical shape for such endeavors.

If you want to continue progressing, then you’ll have to understand how to make goals that you can actually stick to. Don’t know how? Henrik Edberg over at The Positivity Blog, has some excellent tips on setting attainable goals.

If you aren’t sure whether you’ve been making progress, then consider how well the above 5 signs align with you and your actions and adjust your mindset accordingly. And remember, no matter where you are on your journey in life, it’s important to always keep moving forward.

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Author: Stephanie Bruce

Stephanie is the founder of Beginner Bliss, a personal development site where she helps her readers to create lives filled with happiness, purpose, and fulfillment. Get started creating a life you love with 31 Days of Bliss: Guide and Workbook, a FREE ebook for personal development beginners.