When you measure what you want more of and see positive outcomes, it inspires you to do more of what got you those outcomes.
I am talking about keeping score of the progress that you make toward a life that you love.
It is common for businesses to have metrics that they use to measure their progress toward goals and objectives. This tactic is something that you can use in your personal life too.
“People need to put metrics around their priorities,” says Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. In an article in Fast Company magazine he said that he could easily work 100 hours per week. But his family was one of his priorities. He set a goal to be home for dinner 25 nights a month. “Setting a target number is key” he went on to say.
You can use this in every area of your life.
- Spend more time with your spouse/partner. Track the amount of time you spend together.
- Lose weight. Weigh yourself regularly and track the weight loss.
- Increase your social media presence. Track your numbers weekly.
- Get more sleep. Track the number of hours per night that you get or the number of nights you go to bed by a certain time.
- Cut down on your daily Pandemic wine consumption rate. Create a point system and give yourself one point for every day without wine.
- Spend less money. Track every dollar you spend.
Let me give you a couple of examples from life right now.
I have played around with losing weight the last year and half, but haven’t really made any progress. I finally got serious about it. I am tracking my weight (duh). I get on the scale every morning and record the weight in my FitBit app. I have a chart that shows me how much protein, vegetables and fruit to each day. I follow that to the letter. So far, I am down 10.2 pounds. My current target is to lose 15 pounds.
For years I have been fascinated by the Camino de Santiago walk through France and Spain. I don’t think I have the commitment to actually do it though. Instead, I found a program through the Conqueror Challenge where I am virtually walking the Camino. Every time that I walk, I log the mileage in their app and it shows me where I am, how far I have walked and how many more miles I have to go. I have walked 160 miles. My target is 480.9 miles.
To do this, identify your top five priorities; decide how you can measure them, set a target and then figure out what you have to do meet the target.
To keep track, you can:
- Use an app like I am doing.
- Use an Excel spreadsheet (my friend Allison is cracking up right now because I have spreadsheets for everything).
- Track it on paper.
- Set up a point system for the actions that you want to take. Give yourself points for every time you do that. You could also subtract points every time you don’t do it.
What are your priorities? How you will measure them?
This blog post is based on Success Principle #21: Keep Score of Success.
If you like this, get future postings, tips and notices of events sent right to your email box. Sign up here http://www.jodihempel.com/email-sign-up/