Metric Magic !

Not so long ago I had a boss (please notice that I said boss, not LEADER) who was a fanatic about metrics! How many hours were worked, how many cases were closed, how many convictions were made, how many unsuccessful prosecutions happened, how many this, how many that.........ad nauseum.

He is perhaps one of the worst people I have worked for in my career(s). I have now decided that it was NOT the metrics, it was the fact that he was a narcissistic sociopath. And I say that with love in my heart!

But he had the metrics part RIGHT! On my new path in Wealthy Affiliate and my new personal growth path I have embraced, well maybe even become obsessed with metrics. The are two aspects to using metrics in order to gain momentum in our lives. The first is setting goals. The second is measuring (or if you prefer - tracking) progress toward those aims. My favorite quote which reflects the importance of targets (aka knowing where you are going) is from Alice in Wonderland.

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat

The second part of this process is equally important. How is our journey going? Are we making progress? How do we know? Drum roll please (drum roll sound if you would Rick) .. METRICS. Measuring progress can be fun but is not always so. If you want to make it fun, there are some interim rewards to be gained. Somewhat like putting checkmarks on a “to do” list or “checklist.” You have a feeling of accomplishment.

I use several methods to track my progress on personal, family, health, business and spiritual goals. I use the TOGGL app to keep a daily journal which I can print at the end of the day or week to see where my time was “spent” down to the second. BTW - Tracking seconds is not my idea; it came with the app! It gives a start and finish time (by hour of the day) length of time and a description of what I did. It was quite unnerving to find out how much time I “waste.” Oh, and taking a nap is NOT wasting time, I just want to throw that into the mix.

To keep track of my health goals I use a FitBit (any tracker will do for the most part). On the Fitbit desktop, I keep track of calories, (to include sugars, carbs, fats, etc.) as well as heart rate, steps, exercise routines and other quantifiables.

An app called Coach.me monitors my progress toward personal and professional goals and helps me to set priorities. I gleaned this little jewel from the book Mind Hacking by Sir John Hargrave. I have mentioned this book before, and it has been a very helpful tool indeed. I noticed that MS Word just said I reached 504 words (tracking? – way cool), so I need to wrap this up.

The point of this diatribe. Do diatribes require points? Well, anyway, the point is that at least for me, a critical part of my “improvement process” is as the cat said, knowing where I want to get to, and finding out if I am making progress.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and enjoyable weekend.

Steve