Qualifying and Quantifying Life
A new year often brings a revitalization of effort, and an opportunity to review our lives and try to adjust them, to create some future state. (And I know it's February, but I've been planning on writing this since late December.) We are often looking to create the future. That's what a goal is, it's a future state, a future self, a future entity that someone is looking to create.
I've been tracking every minute of my time in the Life Cycle App since 2019. That sounds extreme, but it's easier and takes less time than you think, especially when you develop a system, meaning you create habits with the purpose of making them easy, fast, and built-in to what you already do.
In addition to tracking my time, in 2023 I made a habit tracking spreadsheet in Excel, with columns for tracking the quality of my life, work, and health, which get a 1-10 rating for each, every day. I got that idea from Rob Dyrdek, who does the same (Join the waitlist for his coming program here). By linking my habits to my ratings, I can see if sticking to my habits actually leads to me being more happy with my life, work, and health. Or which habits are helping a lot, and which don't seem to make a difference. This way I can continue to evolve my system, and essentially grow happier and happier. I track year over year happiness, and continue to adjust my habits as I go, based off the data and how I feel!
Tracking time lets me set clear goals for how I want to balance that time. I originally started tracking the time to motivate myself to write - in 2019 I bet I was playing 4 hours of Fortnite a day and thought, What if I use that time for writing? How much time do I really have? Now, in my spreadsheet, I make goals for how I spend my time (writing, reading, jiu jitsu, strength and mobility, how much time Mia, my Australian Cattle Dog, is getting exercise... to make sure I'm a good dog dad) and I adjust that time as I see fit, based on what I imagine my best life looks like. Therefore as I adjust my time, I’m pushing my life toward its ideal version, which is often changing.
"Resolutions" don't work without a clear goal and a clear roadmap for how you’ll achieve that goal. Most resolutions sound like the weakest possible version of a goal: "Drink more water." "Go to the gym." How much water are you drinking now? How much do you want to drink? When will you go to the gym, and how often? Why go to the gym? You need to define EXACTLY what you want, and then make a roadmap for how to get there, starting from the end and working back toward the next thing you will do *right now*. Tracking is the first step to improving.
You’ve got to envision what you want your life to look like, what you want to feel and experience. Write down those things with clear indicators of success, and then write down the habits and steps you need to take to get there. A single goal, when truly pursued, will be life changing. For example:
You want to wake up at 6am with energy.
You might want to -
- Be in bed at 9pm.
- Drink at least 64oz of water before 8pm.
- Don't eat after 8pm.
- Don't watch tv or be on your phone after 8pm (or earlier)
- Wake up and go outside to get morning sunlight first thing.
That's one goal, with five attached habits. And a complete change to most people's days, I'd wager. Change is hard because it ripples out to everywhere. But if you want new things, you have to do new things. You need to vote for your new habits as often as you can to ingrain them into your nervous system. Your current habits will be difficult to undo, of course, but the more votes you stick into the new habit bucket, the more you will tip the scales in favor of the new habit.
You want to bench 225lb six times (one of my goals this year) -
- Get 150g of protein every day before 8pm.
- Bench at least twice a week, 4-6 reps to failure (Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are my possible lifting days)
- Increase weight as the weight gets easier
- 225 x 1 in Q1
- 225 x 2 in Q2
- 225 x 4 in Q3
- 225 x 6 by end of year
That's a simple plan with some sub goals to track progress, and suddenly it looks very easy and attainable. I'm not a professional, and I have this goal because I have small pecs and I want them to be a little more beefy. So my wife will think I'm hot. That's the real goal.
I do a "Weekly Plan & Review" to check-in and course correct.
You can do anything if you prioritize it.
Two more things before I go.
First, I'm not saying anything original or ground breaking here. This is all stuff I've pulled from general psychology and philosophy, as well Andrew Huberman's podcast, Build with Rob, Jocko Willink - his books and podcast, books like Atomic Habits, Dopamine Nation, and a zillion other podcasts and books about habits, motivation, discipline, etc. I'm just echoing the knowledge, putting another drop in that bucket for positive change, to encourage everyone to make their own lives better because that's the way the world gets better, one person at a time, one vote for the right thing at a time.
Second, though I track my happiness as a quantity, that is a number in hindsight for the day that then gets averaged into the year. Real, genuine happiness happens in a moment, any moment, where you choose peace in your heart and silence in your mind. The numbers, the gamification, the goals, the wants and desire - it's all for fun.