When you want to change...

The 3 must measure metrics to get the most of your practices!I have been involved in accelerated learning and performance for many years, and now the greatest movement that I can suggest to people is to make sure they are using the right metrics for their goals. Very often, people make the mistake of confusing their goals for the actual actions they also need to take.Do you have a mastery goal?1 - What action are you going to take? Did I do it?This is a quantity measurement; more often it is a binary measurement of "yes" or "no".Life gets in the way sometimes, and that’s ok. But being honest with yourself is super important too. A very simple question that you can’t cheat is simply “did I do it?”Allowing for flexibility of whether it is 5 mins or 5 hours, the simple question of “did I do it?” is enough for us to own our actions. This is usually a simple matter of scheduling a certain number of ‘doing sessions’ per week.Example time: Imagine you want to improve your cardio or learn a language, the simple question of “Did I do 3 cardio sessions this week?” or “Did I do 3 language learning sessions?” is exactly what we must measure. Once we comply with our intention, we can start fine-tuning the details. For now, we want to show ourselves we can commit to actions and create change2 - How did I do it?This is a quality measurement, more often we can measure multiple things here to define our quality.Once committed to your activities and showing yourself and others that you are doing this (which changes your beliefs about yourself and others’ beliefs about you too, which in turn influences how you see yourself, for more info, research the Pygmalian effect.), then you can begin the ‘tweaking’ process whereby we ask the question of “How should I really be spending my time?”Example time: For the cardio program, most people would think that measuring heart rate would be the best, it isn’t. Measuring distance, time, and rest periods allow you to track your pace (for more info, please research Chris Hinshaw). How far did you go? How long did it take to do that distance? How much rest did you have in the session? Changing any of these key elements to suit your feelings on the day can greatly help you in being compliant.3 - How do I feel about it?This is an emotional metric, based on our perception of our activity.What is our confidence level? Are we satisfied with our process? our sessions?If our confidence is strong but our performance is not consistent or good quality, especially over time, then we can see a misalignment, usually a compensation for value. Coaching around this calls us to unpack and see true value.Whilst if our confidence is low but our consistency and performance are high, then we also see a misalignment, usually a modesty compensation or a self-doubt trauma.Coaching around this helps us build confidence through and because of action taken, being mindful never to add too much difficulty to any single point because that can be detrimental to building confidence.So the 3 must metrics to measure are:1 - Did I do it? Quantity metric2 - How did I do it? Quality metric3 - How do I feel about it? Perception metricHaving these metrics and preparing your actions in advance, preparing for a relapse to your more automatic/ regular behaviors and differentiating between ‘activation’ or starting phases, and ‘maintenance’ or normal phases, is very important for managing change and to not be overwhelmed by the transformation we wish to see.Let me know your experiences with these metrics! “The process is the goal.” ―Geneen Roth This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit becomingresilient.substack.com