The Only Way To Make True Progress And Improve Is To Measure What Matters.

In knowing how to get to where you want to go. You must first know where you’ve been and where you are currently. In order to improve and get better you have to measure what matters. To measure the controllables of any given situation with the intention to improve upon them.

If you are an elite athlete you know this concept all to well. Timed races, sleep measurement, dietary effects, optimal heart rates, peak designed uniforms, oxygen intake, muscle mass. The list goes on and on. Each measurement indicative of areas that may be improved upon. But it doesn’t have to be just the elite athlete.

Measure What Matters In Your Relationships.

If you want to improve your relationships. You could think of ways to measure the controllables that you want to improve upon. For instance you and your significant other could have weekly sliding scales. Give each other a one to ten based on factors you deem important to your relationship. Maybe it’s communication, intimacy, and attention, to name a few. At the end of the week you could give each other a score and discuss ways in which you could improve upon those scores. Where you went right as well as where you went wrong.

Time Is The Ultimate Measuring Tool.

How fast you can achieve a goal is still the best form of measurement. How fast did you get your work finished? Did you perform well at that speed or did you need to take more time fixing and editing? Did you create more measurable problems to fix in that time frame? The goal is to achieve quality in a timely fashion.

Peer To Peer Measurement.

We still have many other tools at our disposal. For the aspiring chef its taste. Are your dishes being met with approval. Approval by peers is another major measurement that can be used to improve upon.

But this system is sometimes flawed. If an anonymous person behind a machine gives you a negative review. You have no complete way of telling where specifically you went wrong with this nameless faceless review. Unless they indicate it specifically. Also another slight problem with peer to peer reviews is that there could be a myriad of other uncontrollable factors that could be contributing to their decision. One’s that you don’t know about. Maybe they were having a bad day, maybe the weather or the commute threw them off. This is where volume is our friend, the more reviews the more accurate the measurement. But don’t neglect those one off negative reviews. Because negative reviews are some of the best measurements lessons on improvement.

Measure The Body And Mind.

Want better health? Measure it. It’s quite simple. First pay attention to what your body is telling you. If it’s in pain or you are in poor mental states something you are doing to it is off. Be it dietary or recreational. The best way to change is to measure what matters. Get a step counter, a heart rate monitor, a sleep monitor. Get your blood pressure checked, test your blood. Watch the changes when certain things you ingest change your body’s composition and how it functions. Measure your heart rates for optimal workouts and than measure that against how good you feel.

It’s all about improvement. We can always improve when we establish a base line to progress from. Otherwise we have no clue what to improve upon. We could just be aimlessly shooting at a moving target. No goals and no way of knowing if we’re getting any closer. Measure what matters and be witness to your life improving around you.

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