Sunday, December 30, 2018

Accountability

On twitter the other day, I read a thread by Ali Yahya (twitter handle @ali01) where he described how he was inspired by Benjamin Franklin (no twitter handle) to manage a set of "virtues" on a daily basis. Franklin's virtues originally included Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, and Independence and were managed by tracking with red ink in a book. Over time, Franklin added virtues to track, ultimately ending with 13.

@ali01 modified this slightly. He called them habits rather than virtues. He tracked via a spreadsheet rather than via ink and paper. He started with four habits: sleep well, exercise, meditate, and update his habit list. In order to improve on something, it has to be a priority and have focus. There cannot be too many "habits" tracked, otherwise it this process will diminish them all. Even so, he has added to this list over time, managing 16 habits currently. He believes this has changed his life and helped make him who he is today, personally and professionally.

I've decided to do my own RockStarTri derivative of this. I'm going to start with my resolution themes: 1) Making myself smarter; 2) Improving my weight and body composition; 3) Continuing my Athletic transformation; and 4) Becoming a better person. I've realized this these aren't really goal oriented but more process oriented which is new for me. I expect to add sub categories to each habit  to help track progress, and perhaps add more habits to track.

One additional habit may be to update status via the blog but I haven't finalized this. Stay tuned. 


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