Track Your Progress.

Being able to look back on how far you've come is incredibly powerful for continuing you on that journey. Whatever it is that you're doing.

I'm not much of a runner. But since COVID & not being able to swim I've started to incorporate running back into my exercise routine for the week. Together with now not being allowed to venture any further than 5km from home I've found myself a running track.

Down the hill, along the creek to the big set of stairs, run up the stairs, back down again and back along the creek to the bottom of the hill. I then walk back up the hill as a cool down.

20 min 13 seconds is my PB to date (now 20 min 8 seconds as of 15/08/2020)

I use an app called Runkeeper to track my runs. I have run intermittently for a number of years now so there is quite a record of my running in there. All that data got me thinking about how powerful it is to track your progress towards whatever it is you're trying to do. I'm not running for any particular goal. It's just general fitness & because I can't do much else right now.

But it's amazing how, having the little app call out how fast I'm going from one km to the next, and giving me the summary of the run at the end, how motivating it is to then show up and see how I go the next time & the time after that.

This is a reminder to me, just as much as it is to you, whatever it is that you're doing in life, just record your progress. Whether you're sitting out to try and achieve a particular goal it doesn't really matter. But just being able to look back on how far you've come is incredibly powerful for continuing you on that journey, whatever it is that you're doing.

I attended a conference late last year. One of the presenters there was talking a lot about human behaviours, and she spoke a lot about how difficult it is for people to start doing something, whatever it is they're trying to do, lose weight, get fit, save money, get their finances in order, whatever it is.

She spoke about how difficult it is for people to get started in the first place. In the first few weeks often a lot of people stop before whatever it is you're trying to do becomes routine. Then we go through a period where that routine kicks in, and so you just keep doing. You keep showing up doing whatever it is that you're doing, and if you're tracking towards a particular goal.

The closer you get to that goal, the more likely you are to actually stop the behaviours or the actions or whatever it is that's gotten you towards that goal. Tracking how close you are to getting to a particular point, she was saying, is actually can be de-motivating for many. The idea of close enough is good enough.

For most people, it's better to acknowledge that goal, but more closely track the progress you've made from where you started, not how much further you have to go to get there.

Reminder to me, reminder to you, whether it's business, whether it's fitness, whether it's whatever, just track your progress. I know I can fall behind in doing that in my work life, in my home life and exercising as well. It's amazing the difference that tracking progress makes.

Until next time. James.