Measuring Success

This week we are looking at measuring our success. 

Why is measuring and tracking our progress and success key to achieving our goals? And, how do we use these measures to keep ourselves motivated and on track towards our ultimate goals?

Measuring success is something we are probably all involved in regularly, in one way or another in relation to our work lives. We are given targets, we benchmark, we measure improvements in productivity, performance and customer feedback scores.  We review and rate our online purchases. Even getting an Uber these days means that you are rated as a customer! It seems we are all being scored, compared or measured for something.

And why do businesses and organisations measure all these different variables?  To make sure that the business is progressing in the way the Board of Directors or the CEO wants it to. 

By tracking all these things they can see when and if they need to make changes in their business processes, to ensure their manufacturing processes are what they should be, to isolate any training needs in staff, influence customer behaviour and most importantly celebrate when things are going in the right direction!

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Why should we measure progress and success?

So why should we measure our own progress and success when it comes to our health and fitness?

For pretty much the same reasons as all those high flying businesses and large organisations do. Because if we are trying to achieve something – we need to know if we are on our way to achieving it, needing to put a bit more effort in, change it up a bit, or if we are totally barking up the wrong tree.

There is no point keep doing the same thing over and over again, if it isn’t getting us to where we want to be.  So by measuring our progress and success, we can judge whether we need to make some tweaks to our plan or give it a complete overhaul, to get us back on track.

Confidence Boost

When we learn that we are moving in the right direction, it gives us a boost in self confidence and self belief. This in turn increases our motivation.

When we are motivated we are driven to continue with whatever it is that we are trying to achieve.

When we can see that our goal is in reach, because we can see our progress, we start to believe that this time, it really will happen for us.

When we start achieving, we develop a greater sense of personal fulfilment and happiness. We start to feel more comfortable in our own skin.  We become the person that we want to be. We become the person that other people want to be like, and come to for help and guidance.  We become braver, feeling able to take on new challenges, without fear of failure.

How do we do it?

Measuring our success and progress towards our goal should be built into our plan.

Example weight loss plan:

1. I will eat to my calorie allowance of 1300 calories every day without fail, by tracking the calories consumed exactly in my meal tracker. 
2. My breakfast will be 260 calories, my lunch will be 390 calories, my evening meal will be 390 calories and my total snacks will be 260 calories.
3. I will put all my energy into making sure I hit my calorie allowance. 
4. I will get weighed every week at Be Strong, to make sure I am on track.

Point number 4 is the clear way of measuring success. But there are also other measures in this plan, that aren’t as obvious.

If you are doing points 1 and 2 every day, at the end of the day you have stuck to your calories and recorded it, you can give yourself a little high five on your way to bed!

Then once a week, when you stride up to those scales (confident that you have lost), you will know that you are winning when the scales tell you that you have lost 1-2 pounds since the last time you got on them.

You will jump off those scales in elation, and you will be high-fiving yourself, and your friends, and wanting to tell everyone how well you are doing.  You will also know that by hitting that 1-2lb a week target you are absolutely on track to hit your overall goal.

This is what will give you the motivation to keep going for another week, and another and another, until you hit that weight loss goal.

We also looked at a plan that involved training for an event last week.

Example training plan:

1. I will walk 2 nights a week and one day at weekend – Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
   

   Week Commencing	Tuesday 7pm	Thursday 7pm	Sunday 9am
   9th September	2 miles	2 miles	3 miles
   16th September	2 miles	2 miles	4 miles
   23rd September	3 miles	3 miles	4 miles
   30th September	3 miles	3 miles	5 miles
   7th October	3 miles	3 miles	6 miles
   14th October	3 miles	3 miles	EVENT DAY

2. I will take part in 2 Be Strong HIIT sessions each week – Wednesday (6pm) and the WOW on a Saturday. 
3. I will fuel my body like an athlete. Eating 5 pieces of fruit and veg a day, lean meats and fish, and complex carbs like pasta and rice.  I will hydrate with water, and keep a check on my calorie intake. 

Other measures

Here are a few examples:

• progress photos
• measuring parts of your body – waist, chest or hips,and recording them in your weight tracker etc
• clothes sizes
• timing how long you can do something for without stopping or getting breathless
• measuring how heavy an item or weight that you can lift
• if you have fancy weighing scales – your body composition – body fat percentage and muscle mass percentage
• reduction in blood pressure
• changes to blood sugar (pre-diabetes/diabetes)
• lowering of your resting pulse rate

If you have any other ideas, please comment below, we love to hear what you guys are doing.

Use the data!

Measuring our success along the way is really important for keeping our motivation levels high, as we have already said. If we know that we are being successful, it builds our self-belief and self confidence, our mindset becomes more positive and most importantly, it spurs us on to keep going.  That is why, it is so important to have little mini goals to celebrate at regular intervals, along the way. Use the information that you are gathering about your progress along the way to give yourself something to celebrate, shout about and tell the world how great you are doing! 

You have the opportunity to record data in weight tracker, meal tracker, water tracker and steps tracker, all within the website and the Be Strong app.  Use these data to celebrate your wins.  Have you hit your hydration and steps goals continuously? Are you staying on track with your calories? Seeing your progress in these trackers, can be a fantastic motivator.  If you have a smart watch, join challenges, enter competitions with friends, set yourself daily goals, and keep that motivation up by achieving them, as many days as possible. 

Along the way we also need to reflect on how we are performing, and whether the plan is getting you to where you want to be.  By measuring  success each day or week, this is easy to keep on top of.  If we aren’t getting the results we expect, or we aren’t ticking things off our plan or schedule as we should be, we need to spend some time reflecting, and then work out if we are really sticking to the plan, the reasons for us not doing, or whether the plan needs to change slightly.

Are you actually following the plan? If you aren’t, why not? Are you giving it your best shot? What is getting in the way? Is there a way to manage this?  

If you are following the plan – why is it not working? Have you employed the right method? Do some tweaks need to be made to get you back on track?

Once you have worked out what the problem is you can either amend the plan, or get more focused and get back on track.

We should reflect regularly to make sure we are hitting our goals, and heading in the right direction. If  the plan isn’t right, and you don’t know where to make the changes, ask for help. We love it when people contact us, so don’t be frightened of doing so. Don’t just keep heading down the wrong path, or spit your dummy out and give up. Because you wanted this remember?! You spent time devising this goal and this plan, to get you what you want. So don’t waste all that time and effort, just review and revise the plan, then get back on track.  Because if you don’t you will be back here in a few months time starting all over again. 

This Week!

Look at your goal and plan, and make sure you have got those checks and balances in place to allow you to effectively measure your success. Then measure! Don’t be frightened of doing so. Don’t be frightened of acknowledging that you are doing well, or even not doing well. Because each time you measure your success it is an opportunity to take you closer to your ultimate goal!