One morning while dressing up for work, a young lady discovered the dress she planned to become too tight for her. She tried different one, and another but it was the same. That’s when she realized she had gained a lot of weight. She managed to find something loose and went to work.
Later that day, she found some exercise routines on the internet and started working out to shed some pounds. After a few weeks, she stopped exercising with the confidence that she had done enough.
While bragging to a friend about her brief weight loss mission, the friend asked a simple question: “So, how many pounds did you shed?”
Then she realized her error. She did not actually weigh herself before, during or after the exercise routine. In fact, she worked out as ‘led by the spirit’. On some days she did 50 reps, other days she did 30 reps. Even though her clothes didn’t feel so tight any more, she couldn’t tell how much progress she made.
The excitement that comes from taking up a new hobby, starting a new job or learning a new skill can make us forget to pay attention to how well we perform on that new vocation over time. We focus too much on the activity and forget to measure progress.
If you often feel the need to move to jump from one project to the other because you get bored, it is probably because you didn’t track your progress because there was no goal in the first place.
What is the point of being mindlessly busy, racing around like a headless chicken, to seemingly no avail?
One good reason to track is that it helps us focus on important things that we need to do so as to move in a right direction. It helps us to be more deliberate about everything that we devote our time to and experience true fulfillment.
Another reason why tracking is good is that it makes it easier for us to set goals, break big tasks into smaller steps and make life a lot easier. It helps you to be more accountable to yourself and to the people around you.
Most of us make advances every single day, but we fail to notice them because we lack a method for acknowledging our progress. Start tracking today and you will see the difference.
