Achieving goals involves setting a clear and specific goal , creating a plan of actions to reach that objective, following that plan and documenting our results (see Achieving Personal Goals).This page is about how recording metrics on the things we want to improve can lead to improvement in our performance and in achieving our goals.

In June 2008, Veronica Noone attached a small sensor to her running shoes and left her house to go for a run.  This sensor measured how far she traveled, and how long she spent on the run.  This information was saved in her iPod for later review. The technology that enabled this process was the focus of a recent story in Wired magazine, but it carries a deeper, more meaningful message about performance, motivation and goals that’s relevant to general knowledge about setting and achieving goals.

What they found was that there is motivation for most of us in the experience of reviewing the data produced by our performance.  According to Veronica, “It just made running so much more entertaining for me.  There’s something about seeing what you’ve done, how your pace changes as you go up and down hills, that made me more motivated”.  The result is that it’s led to modification in her behavior, to the point that she is running frequently each week now and has started entering races.  She believes that the information she receives from her runs has alot to do with her current level of fitness.

The benefits of recording and tracking results, whether in the pursuit of a specific goal or as a general activity, comes from assisting us to identify trends and patterns in our performance as they emerge and from the motivation and increased energyit provides.  We inherently seem to like those trends to move in the direction of improvement, in the direction of our goal.  Without the feedback , we are able to proceed with blissful ignorance about our performance and miss the opportunity to feel good about any improvements.  To spin a familiar phrase, “what you don’t know won’t kill you, but it will diminish the motivational possibilities that knowing your results provides”.

Observing the statistics on this technology has produced another interesting fact.   It appears that something happens once someone uses the system 5 times.  Users have shown to be very likely to continue running and continuing to track their data when they have done so at least 5 times.  At the five run mark, users become hooked on what the data (feedback) tells them about themselves.  If we are interested in the performance, isn’t it possible, or even likely, a similar pattern would emerge if we were tracking weight loss, reducing debt or increasing fitness?  The lesson: Stick to the plan you set to achieve your goal, and record your results at least 5 times, and you will significantly improve your chances for success.

This feedback also serves to invoke what is known in sociology as the Hawthorne effect.  If we are aware that we are being watched , according to the Hawthorne effect we will tend to revise our behavior.  If you’re thinking this sounds like accountability, you’re right.  You don’t have to actually be watched by someone else, but by tracking and viewing the data from your performance you basically become your own observer, and the principles end up working the same way.  Record your results, review them, and the sense of accountability kicks in and you generally realize the benefit of improved performance.

In studies of weight loss, it’s been shown repeatedly that people who count calories have greater weight loss than those who don’t.  Sound familiar?  When you examine your behavior and have a clear understanding of what it has been, you become an observer.  Another company, Core Performance, realized that workouts in which metrics are recorded (sets, reps, weight lifted, etc) make you fitter, because you will train more precisely and put in more effort if you know you’re going to be reviewing your results.  Again, someone (meaning “you”) is watching .  It’s similar to not being observed when you don’t track and record your results.  One of the owners of Wicker Park Fitness, Mason Goldbert, says “People love to track things.  It brings out their competitive spirit.”

Whatever your goal , it must contain the elements of the acronym SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Sensitive).  Don’t omit the Measurable piece - it’s one key to motivation and consistency.

The run Veronica took that day was just over 1.5 miles, and took a little more than 18 minutes.  It’s effects, though, go well beyond that run.  It gave her a benchmark for how she performed that day, and it also gave her something to measure her future performance against.  Since that first run until the time the story was published, Veronica had run 95 more times, logging 283 miles in about 48 hours.  Oh by the way, her weight has dropped from 225 lbs to 145 lbs. 

The activities we measure tend to improve.

For more information on this and other topics related to making improvements in your life, go to Achieving Personal Goals.

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