How To Improve Yourself Everyday By Setting Benchmark Goals

Do you want to improve yourself every day? Of course, you do, we all do, right?

Nobody wants to stay at the same point doing the same thing and getting the same old result every year. And this is what you are going to discover in this guide. You will discover how you can improve yourself every day by setting benchmark goals.

I first came across this idea from Vishen Lakhiani, the founder of the multi-million-dollar personal development company, MindValley.

I considered Vishen to be my virtual mentor and I have learned a lot from him, especially in the field of creating potential through creating breakthroughs in the way we think.

Vishen called this technique the “set point” or to put it in a simple term, the benchmark.

In other words, you identify the lowest threshold you can accept and then set it as a benchmark.

The Concept of a Benchmark Goal

Take the example given from Vishen; he said his benchmark in the physical area is to be able to do 50 pushups once a week. And that is his minimum.

Every week, he would test this benchmark by doing the pushups. If he manages to do 50 pushups, that’s great because it means he has maintained his body shape and is physically fit.

And if his body cannot take it and he fails the test, he would put his focus into building his physical health over the following week.

Vishen would then put more time into exercise and build his stamina to make sure he can do the minimum pushups, to reach his benchmark of 50 pushups.

He would also increase his benchmark to doing more pushups, like 55 or 60. He wanted to create a challenge to do more than his benchmark when he failed the test so that he could push through his limit.

By creating these “set points” across every area in his life, he not only manages to maintain his performance, but he also improves in those areas.

Imagine if you are a blogger and you have been writing 1,000 words every day, and you have been publishing content consistently to your blog for 8 years, do you think your blog will become popular and you will become an authority figure?

Of course, you would. In fact, most successful bloggers you see on the internet today made it because of their persistence.

They maintain their pace, and they have been doing it for years. Neil Patel said he had been a blogger for more than a decade. He has been writing and publishing fresh content to his blog almost every single day, for more than 10 years.

No wonder he is a successful blogger and internet marketer today.

Regardless of what you want to achieve in your life, whether it is to build a successful internet business, to become a writer, or to grow a YouTube channel, you can use the concept of setting benchmark goals to help you improve every day and achieve outstanding success over time.

And that is exactly what I’m doing right now. I’m setting myself a benchmark goal of publishing every Tuesday here, on my blog.

I know it is going to take time before I hit something big. This is my benchmark. This is my “set point.”

This is the minimum threshold I want to commit. No matter if it rains or snow, I want to keep to my publishing schedule.

Do you see how powerful creating a benchmark goal can impact your life right now?

When you set a minimum acceptable target in the area you want to improve, you will know what to do to maintain your performance, and at the same time, make an improvement.

When you maintain your performance consistently, your skills will improve, and you will become better at what you do.

Benchmark goals can be powerful because they maintain your performance. Have you ever seen people grow fat and feeling lethargic because of their age?

As people grow older, and if they did not maintain their physical health, they will suffer the consequences. They will become overweight because their metabolism rate has decreased.

Not only that, they will feel lethargic, easily tired, and have no energy. Why? This is because as their age goes up, they did not maintain their level of physical health.

This is why setting a benchmark goal is important. It maintains our performance and grows us over the long term.

Besides being a founder of a multi-million dollars company, Vishen Lakhiani is also an author. And I strongly suggest you read his book, The Buddha and The Badass, which is one of my top recommended books…

In the book, Vishen shared 12 areas where you should set your goals.

Set Benchmark Goals in These 12 Areas of Your Life

1. Love relationship

Set a benchmark for how much time you want to spend with your lover each day. How many date nights do you want to have, and what would you do each week to grow your intimacy with your lover.

2. Friendships

Consider creating a benchmark for how much time you want to spend with your friends. How much time are you going to put in each month and what do you need to do to maintain this minimum threshold.

3. Adventures

What do you love to do? Do you want to travel overseas twice a year? That is what I do since a few years ago. I told myself that I would set it as my benchmark to travel overseas twice a year. What about you? How many overseas trips or adventures do you want to have each month or each year?

4. Environment

What should you do to maintain your environment and surrounding? Do you clean your house at least once a week? Schedule and create the benchmark goals to improve your environment today.

5. Health and fitness

Create a benchmark goal for your physical health and fitness. How many hours are you going to spend exercising per day and in a week? What would you do to maintain your health to operate at an optimum level?

My benchmark is to do a few minutes of stretching every morning once I wake up and go jogging or play badminton twice a week.

6. Intellectual life

What do you want to learn and improve on? Make it a benchmark to read and learn from others. How much time are you going to spend reading books each day?

My morning routine includes 30 minutes of reading. And I will also read whenever I’m free. On average, I read about 2 -3 books a month. What about you? What is your benchmark to improve your intellectual life?

7. Your skills

Commit to reading and learn to improve your skills. If you are like me, a blogger and content creator, I constantly read other people’s blogs and articles. I also take online courses to improve my internet marketing skills.

I’m constantly improving and learning to get myself to become an authority in the personal development industry. I believe that anyone can become good at what they do if they are willing to learn. As Zig Ziglar said:

“If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”

8. Spiritual life

Considering setting a benchmark for your spiritual life. What do you do to be more spiritual each day or week? Do you meditate? How much time do you spend on meditation? Set the benchmark goal now.

9. Career

How about your career? What do you do to improve your career and to master your craft? Do you read and attend seminars from remarkable people in your industry? Do you attend meetings or discussions conducted by successful people in your field? Set the benchmark now for how you want to improve and do better in your career.

Remember, you are going to spend a huge part of your life working, so make sure you are working toward a worthy cause. Pursue the career of your passion and leave an impact.

10. Creative life

How much time do you spend to improve your creative life? Do you write and journal? Do you love to sing or draw? Set a benchmark for how much time you will spend in your creative life.

11. Family life

This is one of the most important areas in your life. Do you have a benchmark for it? How much time and how are you going to improve your relationship with your family members? Set goals to maintain and grow the relationship. Perhaps you can call your parents once a week or spend the entire weekend with them. Set the benchmark and create the setpoints now.

12. Community life

You can also set it as a benchmark as to how much you are going to contribute to your community and the world. Are you donating part of your income for charity purposes? If you don’t, it is time to consider making it a benchmark today.

How to Set Benchmark Goals to Improve Yourself Everyday

By now, you should know why it is important to have a benchmark for every area of your life. It is time to learn how you do it.

Here are the 4 steps on how to set a benchmark goal to maintain and improve yourself every day.

1. Identify the Area You Want to Improve

Go through the 12 areas suggested above. If you want to improve something in your life, you must know what it is and where to start.

Thus, identify the area you wanted to improve on right now.

It could be your health, your relationships, or your career. Just pick one for now.

2. Set the Benchmark

Set the goal, create the minimum threshold, and build the minimum non-negotiable setpoint that you will accept.

For example, for Vishen Lakhiani, his minimum setpoint for his physical health is to be able to do 50 pushups once a week. If he can do it every week, great, it means he can maintain his physical health level.

As for me, I set my benchmark goal to publish a new post on my blog every Tuesday. And this is how I managed to maintain this blog up to this day. I pumped up fresh content at least once a week, and I have been doing this for years now.

What about you? What is the benchmark you are going to set and in which area?

3. Make Progress and Build the Habit

Once you have set up the benchmark, all you do is maintain and go through your day.

Trust me, this is easier said than done. Setting the goal is the easy part, the real challenge comes when it comes to taking action and making progress.

Most people fail because they are NOT being consistent with what they do. You have to understand this:

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”

John Maxwell

Here are some guides to help you keep your momentum going and be consistent with your plan:

• 10 Amazing Methods How to Be Consistent in Achieving Your Goals
• Why You Have No Motivation and What Should You Do
• How to Keep Your Momentum Going and Stick to Your Plan

4. Initiate the Growth

If you successfully maintained and reached your targets, congratulations, and keep it going.

If you fail to achieve the benchmark, what should you do? Simple, on the following days or weeks, focus more on that area and work on the goal.

For example, when Vishen failed to make 50 pushups once a week, he would put more focus into building his physical health because that is the signal telling him that something is not going right and he needed to make a change.

Thus, for the following week, he would exercise more and build his stamina until he can reach his target again.

Apart from that, Vishen would also increase a little on his benchmark. He would do 55 pushups in the next week. Why?

He wanted to create a small challenge that gets him moving.

You can do the same. Now, the challenge you create must be small enough so that you will want to take action. If you set the challenge to do 70 or 100 pushups, your brain will sabotage and you know you can never make it even if you wanted to.

This is what is happening to most people out there. They overestimate themselves. They set goals that are way bigger than themselves. More importantly, their actions don’t justify the results they want.

They set a goal to earn $1,000,000, but the actions they took just won’t bring them the outcome they want.

Small increment may sound boring, but with the small victory you earned, you will build more confidence and go higher, slowly, but surely.

In fact, small victories are the game changer. Read my guide, Why Start Small, and you will understand why taking small steps are crucial to achieve success in life.

Conclusion

Setting benchmark goals or creating “setpoints” in every area of your life will make sure you are moving in the right direction and maintaining your progress.

Not only that, your benchmark will ensure that you grow and improve yourself every day because you will make sure you are always “up to the standards”.

Again, make sure you get the book and read it – The Buddha and The Badass – because it transformed the way I look at life. And I’m sure it will inspire you to live a better life too.

So, do you think the concept of setting a benchmark goal can help you improve every day?

Let me know your opinion on the comment section below. And if you like what you read, remember to share it with others too.