Evaluating Your Progress

Congratulations on completing your 12-week DRX journey! As you stand at the finish line, it's time for a comprehensive evaluation of your progress. This retrospective is not just about celebrating your achievements—though that's certainly part of it. It's a crucial step in understanding your journey, consolidating your gains, and setting the stage for continued growth.

The Importance of Thorough Evaluation

A thorough evaluation serves multiple purposes:

  1. It provides closure to your 12-week journey.
  2. It helps you understand what worked, what didn't, and why.
  3. It reinforces the lessons and insights you've gained.
  4. It sets a baseline for future growth and goal-setting.

Remember, in the DRX framework, evaluation is not about judgment but about learning and improvement.

Reviewing Your Initial Goals and Motivations

Start by revisiting where you began:

  1. Retrieve the goals you set at the beginning of your journey. How do they compare to where you are now?
  2. Recall your initial motivations. Have they evolved over the 12 weeks?
  3. Review your initial OKR tree. How has your understanding of your objectives and key results changed?

This review helps you appreciate how far you've come, not just in achievements but in understanding and perspective.

Analyzing Quantitative Progress: Lead and Lag Measures

Now, let's dive into the numbers:

  1. Lag Measures:

    • Compare your final metrics to your starting point and your goals.
    • Calculate the percentage of improvement for each lag measure.
    • Identify any lag measures that didn't change as expected.

  2. Lead Measures:

    • Review the consistency of your lead measure performance over the 12 weeks.
    • Identify trends or patterns in your lead measure data.
    • Assess which lead measures seemed most impactful on your lag measures.

  3. Correlation Analysis:

    • Examine the relationship between your lead and lag measures.
    • Were there any surprising correlations or lack thereof?

Create visual representations of your data—graphs or charts can reveal patterns that might not be obvious in raw numbers.

Assessing Qualitative Changes and Personal Growth

Beyond the numbers, reflect on the qualitative changes you've experienced:

  1. Habit Formation: Which new habits have you successfully integrated into your life?
  2. Mindset Shifts: How has your thinking changed regarding your goals and capabilities?
  3. Skill Development: What new skills or knowledge have you acquired?
  4. Emotional Growth: How has your emotional relationship with your goals evolved?
  5. Identity Changes: Do you see yourself differently now compared to 12 weeks ago?

Write detailed reflections on each of these areas. These qualitative changes often have the most profound long-term impact.

Identifying Key Success Factors and Challenges

Analyze what contributed to your successes and what presented obstacles:

  1. Success Factors:

    • Which strategies or tools were most effective for you?
    • Were there any pivotal moments or decisions that significantly impacted your progress?
    • How did your environment or support system contribute to your success?

  2. Challenges:

    • What were the most significant obstacles you faced?
    • How did you overcome these challenges? If you didn't, why not?
    • Were there any persistent difficulties that you're still working to address?

Use the 5-Whys technique to dig deeper into both your successes and challenges. This can reveal root causes and patterns that will be valuable for future goal-setting.

Recognizing Unexpected Outcomes and Insights

Often, some of the most valuable outcomes of a transformation journey are the unexpected ones:

  1. Identify any unintended positive consequences of your DRX journey.
  2. Reflect on surprising insights you gained about yourself or your goals.
  3. Consider how your journey has impacted areas of your life beyond your specific goals.
  4. Recognize any ripple effects your changes have had on people around you.

These unexpected outcomes can sometimes be more impactful than the goals you initially set out to achieve.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your DRX Implementation

Finally, assess how effectively you implemented the DRX framework:

  1. Deconstruction: How thorough and effective was your initial deconstruction of your goals and challenges?
  2. Reconstruction: How well did you reconstruct your approach based on your deconstruction?
  3. Execution: How consistently did you execute your plan? Where did you struggle with execution?
  4. Adaptation: How effectively did you adjust your approach based on feedback and results?

This meta-analysis of your use of DRX can help you refine your approach for future goals.

To conduct this comprehensive evaluation, set aside a significant block of time—at least several hours, if not a full day. Approach it with curiosity and compassion. Remember, the goal is not to judge but to learn and grow.

For your evaluation homework:

  1. Compile all your data from the past 12 weeks into one place.
  2. Create visual representations (graphs, charts) of your quantitative progress.
  3. Write detailed reflections on each of the qualitative areas discussed above.
  4. Conduct a 5-Whys analysis on your top two successes and top two challenges.
  5. List at least five unexpected outcomes or insights from your journey.
  6. Write a letter to your past self (from 12 weeks ago), sharing what you've learned and accomplished.
  7. Based on this evaluation, draft initial thoughts on how you might apply DRX to future goals.

This evaluation is not just the end of your 12-week journey—it's the foundation for your continued growth and success. Take the time to do it thoroughly. The insights you gain here will be invaluable as you move forward, continuing to apply the DRX framework to new goals and challenges.