How Tracking Links To Your Success

Tracking brings me joy! I know it might sound strange, but the process of tracking creates the same happy feeling that checking tasks off my to do list does.

Long before being a business owner or becoming a coach, I tracked. You might be bewildered by some of the information I’ve tracked over the years.

In high school, I tracked what I wore and where I wore each outfit. I carefully coded each item in my wardrobe. All pants, shorts, or skits had a specific number. All my tops were assigned a letter. Dresses were double letters like “CC”, and at the end of every day, I noted the outfit I wore like this:

6/6/78 school 1-K

6/7/78 work GG

The whole goal behind this elaborate tracking system was to ensure against repeating outfits. Like any tracking process, tracking what I wore revealed something that was important to me.

But that’s no the only thing I’ve tracked. I’ve logged the number of miles I ran, work outs completed, calories, and a myriad of other measurable pieces of information.

Tracking These Days

These days what I track has changed, but there are still an assortment of personal and professional bits of information that I regularly track. Here’s small sampling:

• The books I read – the title, author, and the number of pages.
  (My goal is to read 5 books a month.)
• The days I journal.
• The number of activities I engage in that make my heart happy.
  (My goal is to do at least something everyday that is life-giving.)
• How many Coffee Chats I have with prospective clients.
• The activity on my website, YouTube channel, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.

Tracking might seem tedious and strange to you. It isn’t something that appeals to all personalities types. For me, tracking simultaneously holds me accountable and gives me incentive! It provides a concrete visual of the progress I’m making, or failing to make, that I find quite helpful.

Ugh! Tracking?

My husband on the other hand is more of a random guy. For him, tracking has felt restrictive – a complete waste of time.

Over the last few years he’s had some big goals he’s been chasing and along the way he’s discovered that tracking has it’s benefits! While he still only tracks a few important bits of information that are directly linked to his goals, his appreciation of tracking has grown!

I share his shift in thinking about tracking in hopes of inspiring you. If you too are more of an unstructured random sort of person, perhaps tracking might be worth considering!

What To Track

Tracking is more beneficial when you know two things:

1. The goal, target, or end result you are looking for.
2. What data to track to get you where you want to be.

Silly as it seems now, back in the day when I tracked what I wore so that I wouldn’t repeat outfits, tracking aided in accomplishing my goal.

In some cases, the information I’m tracking lets me know how well what I’m doing is working so that I’m able to adjust my strategy where needed. Plus, the information I’m tracking serves as a good indicator as to whether or not my new plan of action is working or not.

Bottom line, what gets measured gets your attention!

More Examples

There are all sorts of possibilities when it comes to what to track depending on your goals including…

• The number of cold calls made.
• Pages written or writing for a set amount of time.
• Time worked on a specific project.
• Money spent or money brought in.
• Website traffic.
• Where website visitors are coming from.
• How you are using your time.
• Giving yourself credit for doing hard tasks.
• Whether or not you are investing in self-care.

The question is, what do you need to track to reach your goals; the baby steps that will help you successfully achieve your goals?

The Downside to Tracking

Beware! There’s a nasty negative side to tracking as well. The goal is to compare you to you. To see your progress. Tracking gets you into trouble  when you use your tracking info to compare yourself to others! That’s sure to lead to discouragement, discontent, or frustration.

Or potentially even worse if you come out ahead, comparing yourself to others might lead to pride or feeling like you’ve arrived when in reality there’s plenty of room for growth.

Zig Zigler said, “Success cannot be defined in one sentence, but instead it is comprised of many things.”

That’s so true! How I define success is a huge factor in how I choose to spend my time, what I measure, and whether or not I’m thriving personally and professionally.

Remember, success isn’t always about money, titles, or even accomplishing all your goals for the year. And what’s success for me might not be success for you.

It’s OK for me to measure and track as long as I keep in mind my definition of success. When I’m consumed with tracking, discouraged by metrics aren’t where I want them to be, or by numbers that far exceed my expectations I run the risk of the process working against me. If that is the case, then measuring isn’t the issue, my heart is!

Tracking And Success

How does tracking link to your success? Tracking helps you by…

1. Increasing Your Awareness

In order to successfully get the results you are after, you need to know if what you are doing is edging you closer to your goal. For example, if your goal is to lose 15 pounds, and you are tracking your calories you then know…

• • • How many calories you are eating each day, which heightens your awareness of what you are eating.
    • Whether or not you are sticking to the desired number of calories each day. If you are and you are still not getting the results you seek, you may need to make some adjustments like adding in exercise, shifting to a keto diet, or actively lowering your stress.

Along the way, you may discover new bits of information like the reasons you want to eat. Perhaps you are bored or feeding your emotions.

While this example is about losing weight, the same principles apply to whatever you might be tracking.

2. Encouraging Consistency

The mere fact that you are tracking encourages you to be more consistent. It’s even more likely that you will be consistent if you make it your goal to not break your streak. I know that was a significant incentive for my husband. If you struggle to be consistent with a habit or with the action steps needed to achieve a goal, find a way to visually track whether or not you completed the action step or a number and see how long you are able to go without breaking your streak.

For example, if you have a goal of adding six new clients, how many people do you need to reach out to? Twenty a day? Keeping track of the number of people you actually reached out to not only ensures consistency, but lets you know if you are contacting enough people to achieve your goal. That’s one of the perks to reflecting at the end of each month. You have the opportunity to evaluate whether or not what you are doing is working.

3. Improving Your Focus

The act of tracking naturally returns your focus to those important factors that will ultimately contribute to your success.

4. Boosting Your Motivation

It’s possible to play a game without keeping score, but it certainly not as motivating, right? Tracking offers a way to keep score in your own personal game!

5. Exposing Areas In Need of Improvement

It’s no secret that you can’t keep doing the same old thing and expect to get different results. Tracking exposes the areas in my life that are  in need of a fresh strategy or at least a tweak. Without tracking and my monthly evaluation time (did I mention that this is wildly helpful), who knows how long I might keep doing something that is not getting me any closer to where I want to be.

6. Creating Accountability

Tracking is like your very own accountability partner!

7. Revealing Your Progress

Seeing your progress is encouraging, motivating, and allows you to see your progress in black and white. Find a way to make your progress visual!

8. Telling You The Truth

I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to downplay my successes and feel like I’m doing more poorly than I actually am. The numbers often tell a very different story. Not only is that motivating, but tracking highlights what’s working and encourages me to keep on going!

And when the data does reveal that something isn’t working, that’s incredibly helpful information to have too. Then I’m are able to make adjustments, experiment, and explore what might work better. After all, the numbers make it clear if you are on the right track.

How might tracking pave the way for your success?