Have you been stagnated lately? Feeling like your in quick sand and not able to achieve you’re goals?
Maybe you have some New Year’s resolutions but have not made any progress to get them “resolved?”
Sometimes performance in the business world is simply hard. It could be ultra-competitive markets, a culture that is struggling to gear up for performance, or you simply feel swamped with your day to day to-do list.
When this happens, sometimes it helps to FORGET about the business world and turn to your personal life.
Getting better results in one area of your life tends to translate performance in others.
Let’s turn to a critical, related area: Your own physical fitness.
Doesn’t it makes sense if you can improve your physical fitness; you will improve all areas of life? The benefits of fitness are undeniable. However, the APPLICATION of improving your fitness level and the specific methods it takes will directly translate to improving results in the business world. Fitness and weight management is easy to measure and countless struggle with it, myself included. But there is no better proxy for “cause and effect” results management outside of the business world.
Here’s the foundation: START COUNTING!
Over time, here’s the process you’re trying to master:
“If I spend energy on something I can control 100%, will it translate into results that I may not feel like I can control?”
So this is all about measuring the “Inputs” and the “Results.” Or the cause and effect. Then learning over time how your behavior affects results.
Record the Inputs
Your effort (quantity). The activity. Count & record the day and time of activity, the minutes put in, at a minimum.
If you want to count the quality of the minutes with an advanced metric that works too.
Calories burned, reps of weight-lifting, etc.
Tools needed?
Old School Pen, Paper, and clock. Spreadsheet is better for keeping a history.
New School: I-pod shuffle will log this electronically, and give you # of steps and calories burned. Pedometers and other advanced tools also provide benefit. Pen & Paper work just fine to start.
Record the Result
Your Weight is easy to measure, so record this on the day of your activity.
Not everyone wants or needs to lose weight. Record it anyway.
More complicated but probably a better metric is body fat % or Body Mass Index (BMI).
More simple and probably most beneficial? The jeans test, do they feel better or worse?
Simpler but best measurement? The good ‘ol mirror test.
Do this for 30 days; shoot for at least 10 measurements. 10 inputs and 10 results. Stop and review progress. Change things up if they are getting routine and stale. Substitute a walk around the neighborhood vs. the boredom of the treadmill. “Muscle memory” is real, but variety also keeps things fresh on the mental side.
Set goals for the next 30 days. Inch up your inputs. Don’t worry about the result you’re measuring.
Repeat Day’s 60-90.
At this point you will have data at least 40+ recordings. You will begin to see a trend on how measuring what you control (input), affects what sometimes you feel like you don’t control (outcome/results).
Chances are you will be feeling better physically & are probably more mentally alert. That means you are likely building in an edge for results in business. That is how EXCELLENCE works, improvement means you one area impacts the other areas.
A couple of notes, and tricks of the trade:
Keep it Simple when starting out – When all else fails, hit the meat!
If you want to take your game to next level, combine the basics with some other areas: Want a Sure-fire edge? Start Early!
7 benefits of regular physical activity, from a name that means something: The Mayo Clinic
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