Marketing Dopamine • October 28, 2026

Progress You Can Measure

Earlier this month, I wrote about the difference between progress you can feel and progress you can measure.
Progress you can feel arrives instantly. The purchase, the launch, the new idea. It feels like movement, even when nothing has changed.
Progress you can measure arrives slowly. It is quieter.
But it is the kind that lasts.

If you cannot point to it, it may only be a feeling.

Measurable progress does not have to mean complicated metrics. It can be as simple as a few honest questions. Am I having more real conversations than I was a month ago? Are people repeating my message back to me? Are clients finding me through the places I have chosen to focus on? Am I finishing what I start?
These are not vanity numbers. They are signals that trust is building and that your effort is going somewhere.
Checking them once a month is enough. The point is not to obsess over them. It is to make sure the work you are doing is leading where you want it to go.

Feel the progress, then check whether it is real.

Measure the things that matter, and let the rest be a feeling.
Lisa Carmichael is the author of The Marketing Dopamine Workbook: From Awareness to Action, available now, a companion to her book Marketing Dopamine: What Your Brain Is Really Doing When You Think You’re Building a Business, coming soon. Learn more at marketingdopamine.com