RazzWorks

I always say celebrate each and every victory you have during your journey towards striving for greatness or chasing your dreams. Celebrate hitting a top performance or benchmark and any objectives or milestones along the way.

Is there a difference between benchmarks and milestones? Yes.

The real question should be. Why is it important to know the difference?

Knowing and understanding the difference between a milestone and a benchmark is important. The big reason is to prevent the feeling of disappointment in yourself. The thing is, a milestone is something, when reached, that can not be taken away. Where a benchmark is not always doable because it’s a highest level reached at a given time.

What does that really mean?

To better explain it let’s take a look at having a webpage and a few things that can be achieved in growing your site.

MILESTONES = things achieved that are solid

• total # of comments
• total # of likes
• years you own your site
• total # articles and/or posts you have written
  These are things that are permanent and can only grow bigger

BENCHMARK = highest level at a given time

• # of subscribers/followers
• # of visits per day/week/month/year
• # of views per day/week/month/year
• # of likes per day/week/month/year
• # of comments per day/week/month/year
  These are averages and/or go up and down over time.

Here is a different example. Let’s say you decide you want to become more active in your life. Let’s pick something simple. Walking.

Milestones

• total # of days you go for a walk
• total # of miles or kilometers you have traveled

Benchmarks

• How many days a week/month/year you go for a walk
• How fast you walk.
• How far you walk each day

When something happens or you’re not doing well physically the benchmark numbers will decrease. However the milestone numbers remain. Also, even though you might not be able to preform as well as you use to and reach the old benchmark numbers your milestones will continue to grow as long as you keep on going.

In the beginning stages of any adventure milestones and benchmarks are very close to the same thing.

Sticking with the example of walking as a way to be more active. So, in your first week you walked one block 3 days in a row. Well that means you hit a milestone of going for a walk 3 days in a row and also it’s a benchmark because it’s not a guarantee you will do 3 days in a row again.

There is also a second milestone which is you walked a total of 3 blocks. Next week something happens and you went for a walk 4 days but only 2 in a row twice. So you did not meet or pass your 3 days in a row benchmark. However you did set a new bench mark. Last week you went 3 times, this week you went for a walk 4 times. 4 walks in one week is a new benchmark and a milestone.

Over time benchmarks get harder to improve. For example 6 months later everyday you go for a walk one block each day. So the benchmark of 7 days in a row remains the same. However milestones will still be there. After a few months you can say you walked 100 blocks in total. 4 months later 200 blocks in total.

As I mentioned earlier, the importance of knowing and understanding the difference is more about later on when things are getting a little harder to reach new goals. Recognizing that something is a benchmark helps to not become disappointed when you don’t beat it.

One last thing before I tell you what benchmarks or milestones we recently met. When benchmarks become difficult turn it into a game. For example, here at RazzWorks this year my goal is to have at least one visit everyday for the whole year. Last year we had some days with no visitors, views or anything. Just dead. So far this year the lowest has been 3 visitors one day.

---

So what benchmarks and/or milestones have we reached this time?

Well right now we are celebrating the fact that we now have over 700 followers/subscribers on our site. AWESOME!! Now we like to think of it as a milestone as I’m sure a lot of you do as well. Even though technically as mentioned above it’s a benchmark due to it is possible to lose followers and subscribers. Regardless the most important thing is to take a moment and celebrate it. And that is exactly what we are doing.

Thanks everyone! We really appreciate your support and until next time, keep on going and keep on growing.