These last few years, I’ve been new at a lot of things. New to a job, new to a business, new to fatherhood, new to balancing fitness and health with everything else. Sheesh, I’m tired of being the new guy. Not really though, because I believe the thrill of life is in constant learning. This however breeds the question, how do you actually get better? Being buried in spread-sheets, countless yellow notepads lined to the seams with chicken scratch, and a photo library loaded with data, I’ve come to one conclusion: No matter the subject, once you start tracking, you start improving. Hear me out.
In 2020 I embarked on a personal journey to enter a bodybuilding competition, just before the world went into lockdown. What was supposed to be a 3 month “prep” before getting on stage turned into a 9 month marathon of trying to maintain sub 3% body fat and conditioning. Though my bodybuilding career was short-lived, I did eventually get on stage and bring home a 2nd place medal for my weight class, but I also brought home something more important:
The lesson and discipline of realizing for the first time that once I began to track my progress, I became successful in ways I never would’ve imagined. Since then, I’ve carried this principle into all areas of my life I’ve wanted to improve, from finances, to relationships, life goals, and more. Let’s not forget the old Tony Robbins mantra: Where focus goes, energy flows.
Don’t take it from me, look at professional sports superstars like Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady. Do you mean to tell me that their obsessions with recording plays, practices, and drills, along with the incessant watching of their opponents performance and strategies, has nothing to do with their incredible success? Or how about Jerry Seinfield’s content calendar, where he made it a point to create new material every single day, marking an X on his calendar every time he did it to produce momentum. Surely, we can’t forget about Warren Buffet’s meticulous record keeping when it came to stock purchases, sales, and investment decisions, making him one of the most data driven and successful investors in the country. Is it just a coincidence that all of these people tracked their progress and became immensely successful? I don’t think so.
Since this is a real estate blog, I’m sure you’re wondering how this all ties in. The principle of tracking to improve performance can apply to real estate as it does to pretty much anything else. In business and real estate we often use spreadsheets, charts, and tables to analyze property performance, mortgage calculations, and accounting. This is not the only form of tracking. In fitness, tracking might mean weekly progress pictures, weigh ins, and jotting down personal records in a notebook, this alone can be massively impactful. In other areas of our lives where the variables are not quantifiable, such as relationships, tracking can simply mean having conversations every so often to assess your counterpart’s needs and feelings. “Hey, how are we doing? What can we do better? How can I better fulfill your needs?”
Self-development in any area is all about self-reflection and open mindedness to new information. In order to do the self reflection, first we need the data, hence why we track. I challenge you to apply this idea to something you want to improve at and see for yourself how your life might change for the better. You don’t need fancy gadgets or computer software, just the desire to be better today than you were yesterday. Thanks for reading!