The Missing Pieces in Most Goal-Setting Systems
With any goal-setting system, you need a clear outcome—something specific enough that, when your check-in date arrives, you can confidently say whether you hit the target or not. In the CLIMB Goal-Setting Framework, clarity is just the starting point. Your goal should also be linked to your mission or vision, include incremental progress measures, have scheduled monitoring, and—of course—be bold.
Today, I want to focus on the Incremental Progress and Monitoring pieces, because this is where I see most people struggle. When we follow systems like SMART goals, it’s easy to set an outcome goal such as: “By 12/31/2025, I will generate $10,000 in revenue.” It’s clear. It’s measurable. And it absolutely tells you the end result you’re aiming for. But here’s the problem: it doesn’t help you get there.
If we stop at the outcome and never break it down into incremental checkpoints or structure how we’ll monitor our progress, we make it significantly harder to reach the goal in the first place.
CLIMB changes that. It forces you—supportively—to think about three things: milestones, process measures, and monitoring checkpoints.
Milestones
Milestones are your mini-goals. They show whether you’re on track and give you natural markers to celebrate progress along the way.
For a revenue goal of $10,000, your milestones might look like:
$2,500 by end of Quarter 1
$5,000 by end of Quarter 2
$7,500 by end of Quarter 3
These markers turn one big goal into a path you can actually follow.
Process Measures
While milestones track the results, process measures track the actions that lead to those results. If your outcome goal is $10,000 in revenue, what parts of your process should you measure to get there?
Let’s say you run a catering company. You generate revenue by booking and completing events. Your process measures might include:
Number of potential clients contacted
Number of repeat customers
Increase in warm leads
Number of orders serving 25+ people
Average order size per event
These are all levers you can pull. You and your team get to decide which ones matter most—but the key is that you choose them intentionally rather than hoping the outcome magically improves.
Monitoring
Finally—when will you check in?
This is the step most people skip, and skipping it is why goals fade into the background.
Will a monthly check-in be enough?
Do you need bi-weekly or even weekly checkpoints?
Does your team need quick pulse checks in between?
Whatever cadence you choose, stick with it. And if you start noticing that progress is stalling, use your check-ins to talk through barriers, adjust your process measures, and—if needed—increase your monitoring frequency.
When you intentionally layer milestones, process measures, and scheduled monitoring into your goals, you transform them from hopes into systems. That’s where clarity becomes action, and action becomes real progress.
