Choosing What’s Right, Not What’s Easy
Using goal-determined metrics to make meaningful progress.
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If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.
Lord Kelvin
To make changes in our lives we need a reason.
We know drinking is bad and exercising is good. We know that if we want to go to the gym before work, we have to wake up early. To wake up early, we need to go to bed early, and to go to bed early, we need to ignore distractions and close our eyes.
But when push comes to shove and we’re left with the decision to scroll on our phones for "a few more minutes" or go to bed, merely understanding the consequences isn't enough motivation for us to make the right decision.
We know what we should do and how to do it. We also know the consequences of making the wrong choice but choose them anyway.
Discipline for the sake of discipline isn't an argument our brains understand. We make the easy choice instead of the right choice not because we aren't disciplined, but because we don’t have a compelling reason to be disciplined.
Conceptually we know what actions lead us to good outcomes and what actions lead us to bad outcomes. Still, we have no way of measuring, quantifying, or understanding the severity of their impact whether good or bad.
Measuring outcomes makes them material. When our outcomes are quantifiable they are impossible to ignore, easier to understand, and they give us a reason to make the right choice instead of the easy one.
Choosing and tracking the right metrics gives us the reasons and the feedback we need to be disciplined in the most important areas of our lives.
Numbers are difficult to distort
Based on feelings alone we can trick ourselves into thinking we’re getting enough sleep and feeling groggy when we wake up is normal. We distort reality to justify our actions so we don’t have to make sacrifices and change our current lifestyle.
However, when we measure sleep and recovery, we no longer have that convenience. We’re forced to contend with the physiological realities of our actions.
The same is true when we track calories, body weight, screen time, savings rate, hours worked, words written, or anything else that quantifies meaningful progress.
Measuring these metrics makes them realities we can’t ignore. They also give us reasons to do what is right instead of what is easy.
Of course, these measurements are not the goals themselves. Chasing an arbitrary metric will help us stay on track and change our behavior, but metrics alone are not a sufficient motivator to pursue something worthwhile in the long term.
Goal-determined metrics
The metrics we choose to measure our lives with will determine our outcomes, but we shouldn’t let metrics be the goals that we’re pursuing.
It’s easy to become obsessed with a goal for our net worth, a number on the scale, or anything easy to measure, but it’s not the metric that matters. Metrics merely motivate us and direct our actions in the short term. The metrics we measure should be determined by and support our most important goals and worthwhile pursuits.
Achieving a measurable outcome is a notable milestone, but a hollow victory if it's not tied to something meaningful.
Saving X amount or losing Y pounds are useful milestones, but they can’t be the ultimate focus. Instead, we should frame goals around worthwhile pursuits, like buying a home in a specific neighborhood or joining our spouse for their weekend runs. These goals are meaningful, and achieving them is what truly matters, not the metrics that guided our progress along the way.
Our goals should not be metrics, but we need metrics to help us achieve our goals. Creating and tracking goal-determined metrics ensures we make consistent progress on the pursuits that are most important to us, helping us become a bit better each day.
Prompts
What are the most important worthwhile pursuits in your life today?
What metrics can you track to help you achieve them?
How will you use these metrics to make the right choice instead of the easy choice?
Deep Dive
A long-time bestseller explaining the power of starting with “why” instead of “what”.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin