Congratulations to ASA’s intrepid and insightful BV editor, Rick Warner, who just passed a birthday milestone (29, of course). His most recent E-Letter used the occasion to offer ASA members and BV analysts guidance in keeping their professional (and personal) resolutions on track:

• “Milestones tell us distance, not direction,” Warner says. Milestones don’t even indicate the final destination. Think mile markers along the highway, which look the same no matter which Interstate you take. Take a turn onto the wrong highway—and you may go miles, checking off the markers, before you realize your mistaken direction.

• “Milestones become irrelevant when we need to change direction,” Warner writes. Speed bumps and detours are bound to happen, and when they do, they may indicate the need to take a turn or even a different road toward the ultimate goal. Then the only milestones of any import are the ones on the new track.

• The value of milestones is fleeting—and fickle.  “If we have set goals that for any number of reasons are no longer valid, [then the] milestones that directed us to those now invalid goals can become millstones,” Warner advises. Enjoy the “fleeting success” of the milestones that you do achieve and then “move on.”  Milestones that appear in your “rear view mirror only have value in telling you where you’re coming from—not where you’re going,” he adds. Take a look at your current goals and objectives to make sure they are correct “for you, your life, and your business.”