"What gets measured gets managed"✅

Following on from yesterday's email about motivation, I just want to stress how important it is to quantify your goals.

Maybe it's just me, but having a realistic target to aim for, means I am so much more likely to do something.

Using the terms like "workout more" or "read more" or "get healthier" are all really subjective.

I realised that when somebody asked my goals last night, that I don't have any measurable goals, besides a blue belt in BJJ.

(but even aiming for a blue belt can't be broken down into smaller goals except consistent training, because you don't really know when your professor will award it!)

I have some vague goals like "more sparring" in Muay Thai and "more clients" but because I don't have a fight or a monetary goal, it's hard to motivate myself to take action daily. (That's where good habits come in.)

Try quantify what you want in the long run and break that down into measurable goals that you can work towards monthly/weekly/daily.

Make sure you spend time assessing where you are with a daily or weekly checklist.

I even try give myself flexibility to achieve things over a few days if doing something every day isn't acheivable. For example, an average step count or calorie target for the week when the same target each day might not suit.

When I took up running in 2020 (didn't we all!), I set a target of kilometres to do each week/month. That way I was a lot more likely to go and do a 5/6/7km run, no matter how slow, because it ate into my target for the week.

This week, I'm surprised how powerful the little sheet I ripped out of my journal. I scribbled down "Everyday (in quarantine)" and wrote down

Yoga

Read 30 mins

15k steps

30 min workout

Daily Email (soz for flooding your inbox)

I made a column for each day to tick off when they were each done.

This is the reason that I still did yoga yesterday afternoon even though I missed it as part of my morning routine. 

This is the reason I am reading while walking in the morning. 

If I didn't have those quantifiable goals, I definitely wouldn't read/walk as much. I wouldn't be writing as much ("wouldn't be a bad thing" says you!).

Hopefully that helps you achieve the big goals you have, by setting smaller quantifiable goals.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhan "walks more in a hotel room than when in Bali" O'Haga