The usefulness of personal metrics

I weigh myself every morning. I have an app that I use to track this daily measurement. My desire to enter my weight into the app is very strongly dependent on whether my weight went down (let's get it in now!) or up (it can wait until I've showered...and brushed my teeth...and gotten dressed...). This morning I just looked at it as a number. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a number that provides some feedback on whether my actions are consistent with my expressed desires. (To get healthier, sexier, and primed for peak performance).

It does me no good to give that number any more meaning than a simple data point. I track all kinds of things about my life. That list of books over to the right is just one source of data that I've been collecting about my life for the past couple of years. I don't really do anything with that information. I collect the data, but I'm not really using it to find ways to improve or modify my behavior. I use it mark progress towards some goal, how many books have I read this year?, but I don't use it to help direct my actions and modify my behavior.

I don't use it that way because keeping track of my weight or what books I've read isn't about directing my actions. It's just a measure of what I've done (or the consequences choices I've made). There is value in tracking what you've done, it shows you what you're willing to do. If I'm willing to spend four years of my evenings to pursue an MBA, there must be something about that activity that has real meaning for me. I'm doing it for some reason. My choices of reading material tell me something about what I enjoy. I too frequently look at those titles as a commentary on my character (what exactly that commentary may be has not been delved into too deeply), but it's also data on what I find interesting. If I can stop looking at it as a definition of my value and as a way to find what really motivates me and what I enjoy, I can use that list to stop flitting from one thing to the next in an endless pursuit of the interesting and direct my readings toward achieving something more than mere entertainment.

We have to look at the information at our disposal in every way possible to discover something new. Using that information to reinforce some valued idea about who we are only blinds us to these potentials.