If you want to improve any aspect of your life, you have to measure it so you can track your progress.

Some things are easy to measure:

• Do you want to save more money or pay down debits, just take a look at your account balances.

• If you are tracking weight loss, hop on a scale. This is just pure weight, but there are more sophisticated ways to measure fat vs muscle.

• You can track the calories and macronutrients for everything you eat. I’m not saying this is fun, but you can do it.
• You can use activity trackers for heart rate and exercise.
• There are sleep trackers that allow to track the quality of your sleep.
• And for overall health there’s good ol’ lab work.

I had some not-so-great lab results in September of 2018, and I just completed labs again to gauge my progress roughly six months later. Overall, my numbers are going in the right direction, especially those related to diabetes.

Some things are not so easy to measure. If you want to increase your energy level, how do you measure your energy? If you want to be less stressed, how do you measure your stress level? 

If you have a habit to meditate for ten minutes every day, how do you measure whether it’s working? 

Start with the easy things to measure. Build up momentum from seeing positive progress. Once you start moving in the right direction for certain areas of your life, you will find that other areas of your life will also improve. 

Measure the things that matter but don’t make yourself go crazy with it. I used to weigh myself every day. Bad idea for me. It’s important to measure on a timetable that is reasonable without also discouraging yourself in the process.