Pay attention those who tell you to look for assurance within yourself and what you do. If any man tells you to look to Christ, look to Christ! If they tell you to look to Christ AND (this is adding a work) or examine yourself, progress in sanctification and holiness, remember, LOOK TO CHRIST and ignore that for your assurance or evidence of salvation. We should strive to honor God in all we do, living a holy life yes, but it is THE FRUIT of regeneration, not the cause, it is an evidence yes, however, our ultimate evidence is THE CROSS OF CHRIST, this is the cause of a believer striving to live for God. 

As the old hymn On Christ The Solid Rock i Stand goes:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
2
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
3
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
4
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
In Him, my righteousness, alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

     For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:Not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:8-10 

     There will be no assessment of our transformation as the grounds of our salvation, there will be no inspection to see if we put sin to death enough or pursued holiness enough to get into heaven!, putting sins to death enough and pursuing holiness is THE FRUIT of justification, not ITS CAUSE!

     As soon as even the smallest iota of our own works enters into the equation as the grounds or basis upon which we enter heaven we have destroyed the gospel and the grace of God and turned it into a sham. 

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. - Galatians 2:21