A few months ago I spent nine glorious vacation days in Barcelona.

I fell in love with Barcelona and discovered that my Fitbit has magical powers. Thank goodness, because I basically ate my way around town!

Fortunately, he walked as much as he ate. And thanks to my Fitbit, I know exactly how much I walked each day, both in steps and miles. By the end of the trip, I had walked 64.5 miles! And yes, it amazes me to have traveled so much distance.

It also explained the mystery of why I could still button my pants every day.

If I hadn’t had a Fitbit, I would still have walked a lot … but probably not that much. And that’s why my Fitbit is the reason I didn’t spend the end of my journey walking around in yoga pants!

My step count was always the most important.

Maximizing my steps became a game. I looked for simple ways to keep moving (like walking while waiting to be seated for my next meal) and competed with myself to beat yesterday’s count in a few steps.

Two months back in my normal life, tracking my steps continues to have an impact … almost six extra miles a week. And the best part is, those extra miles come from little actions: a few extra minutes of warm-up before lifting weights, an extra ten minutes added to my dogs night walk, and up and down the stairs when I make coffee. or boil water to make tea.

And therein lies the magic of tracking: it increases your awareness of the options and it is your choices that create your results. And that doesn’t require a Fitbit!

You can create similar magic for whatever change or goal you’re working towards and whatever habit or behavior you want to maintain.

Constant data and information tracking is powerful because:

1. Increase your awareness;

2. It keeps you connected to your daily choices;

3. Helps you see patterns and trends;

4. Facilitates reflection;

5. It gives you real data that you can act on;

6. It makes it easy to take small steps;

7. It’s like having a friend who always tells you the truth.

You can use tracking to reduce stress, achieve specific goals, be more organized, improve communication and relationships, sleep more, increase your sense of balance, overcome fear, take your next career step, cultivate new habits, expand your impact. positive. .. and whatever else you can think of.

Okay, tracking the steps is easy, but how the heck do you track some of these other things?

These are just two examples of how my clients used tracking to create the conditions for their success:

* Lights off. Joanne was in the midst of an exceptionally busy time at work, her stress was skyrocketing, and she had developed a pattern of working late into the night.

She knew the lack of sleep was making everything worse, but she was having a hard time breaking the cycle.

So she decided to keep track of her bedtime.

In just one day, he started making different decisions throughout the day and into the night.

And after three weeks, she was getting more sleep, leading to better focus, higher productivity, more delegation, faster decision making, and less stress.

* Leaning on. Kathy was one of three people considered the next leader of her division. She REALLY wanted promotion and had no doubts about her ability to be great at work. But she was holding back, she didn’t want to appear aggressive or arrogant. (She is neither)

We established a “lean index” using a five-point scale, and she kept track of how intentionally she leaned each day. That simple act of monitoring gently pulled her out of her comfort zone, helping her defend herself.

The result? Kathy was promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations!

Your turn.

What goal or change are you working on? What new habit or behavior do you want to maintain?

Track it!

It doesn’t matter if you put your pen on the paper, your fingers on the keyboard, or the gold stars on a graph.

What matters is that you have a structure to increase your awareness of your day-to-day choices. And it is your choices that create the conditions for success and happiness.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it destiny.” ~ CG Jung