Leading indicators

Have you ever wanted to be 20 pounds lighter?

Or have a million dollars in the bank?

Or double the revenue of your annual gala?

Being 20 pounds lighter is what we can call a "lagging indicator." It indicates that you've been doing something right.

Lagging indicators are results-oriented. You can’t usually just snap your fingers and make results (or lagging indicators) happen.

So how do you end up with a lagging indicator that you desire?

That’s where "leading indicators" come in.

A leading indicator is something that you can observe and measure in time increments that are much more frequent and regular than the lagging indicator.

For example, a leading indicator for losing 20 pounds might be observing a half-pound weight loss each week.

Or a leading indicator for having a million dollars in the bank might be that your savings grows by $1000 per month.

Or a leading indicator for doubling your revenue at your annual gala might be adding 10 new sponsors and 50 new participants (above what you had last year) each month leading up to the event.

How you make those things happen is up to you.

But here's the thing:

You can know early on if you're on track. And you can change tactics if you're not.

You don't have to wait for your daughter's wedding to find out if you're likely to fit into that outfit.

You don't have to wait until you retire to find out if you're likely to have a million bucks in the bank.

You don't have to wait until the night of the gala to find out if you're likely to hit your goal.

The first month, even the first week, you can already plot the trend, and if it doesn't look great, you can adjust.

That's the beauty of leading indicators.

It's like seeing the future.

Which is great.

Because when the future becomes the present, there's no time left for adjusting.

All the best,
A.

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Lagging indicators

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Time vs money: not a simple trade-off