I have been a member of a gym here in Raleigh for about 5 or 6 weeks now. The format is semi-private training and my workouts are with anywhere from 2 to 5 other people. It is a consistent crowd and we now have conversations while we go through the workouts together. It is the first time in several years that I have performed many of these lifts, but the technique instruction has meant no close calls on injuries thus far. Last week was the first max week under this training protocol. My numbers weren’t great but should improve with better technique and increased flexibility. Even this week, though, there have been benefits from last week’s workouts. Now I have numbers on the board (and there is a massive whiteboard to track each member’s numbers) and benchmarks, things I can look to with an aim towards improvement. Already this week the workouts have been better and more challenging with actual numbers to measure against as opposed to guessing what 60 or 70% of my max would be for the main lifts.

Reflecting on this, I have thought about how I try to extend and can further improve extending this principle to other areas of my life—the success of various methods to attract clients, my Spanish vocabulary, etc. Knowing where you are makes it much easier to try to get where you want to go. You still need to decide where you want to go, but the best map in the world is useless without knowing your present location. This is why those giant maps at malls and theme parks always have a dot that says “You Are Here.”

I encourage you to consider your own little experiment with this principle of measure, aim, improve yourself this week. There are a few steps in the process should you choose to take me up on this. The first is that you have to choose what you want to track. Many people and businesses focus on the wrong things and are counterproductive as a result, so getting this right is critical. If this is your first foray into this sort of thing, I encourage you to start with something really small and easy to measure so you can build the habit. Once you decide what you want to track, you need to actually track that thing. Since this step requires adding something to your routine, it also poses a compliance challenge. Lots of apps and hardware can aid you here, but I’ve found that pen and paper work best for me. The final step in the process is to evaluate the data you have collected. You collected the data so you’d be able to use it, so schedule a time to evaluate the data in advance and block off that time in your calendar. Look for trends, try to see what is working and what isn’t, and see where progress is or isn’t being made. Then make changes to your process or actions as a result of your evaluation. Once you have made some changes, repeat the cycle so that you continue to improve with each iteration.