You may have goals like losing weight, exercising more, saving money, or improving your sleep. However, you might not have been able to get things moving because you lack time or a plan to accomplish those goals. It may seem counterintuitive, but you don’t need a goal if you want to make changes in your life.
All you have to do is track yourself. You can go about your day doing everything you usually do. But the simple act of tracking your steps, calories, sleep, spending, or screen time will awaken something inside you that will make it easier to change your behavior. As a result, you’ll make progress without having a goal. So why does this work? Let’s examine why tracking yourself naturally motivates you to make lasting changes.
The Magic Of Awareness
Your current habits are reinforced behaviors that form over time. When something becomes a habit, you may no longer be consciously aware that you’re doing it. If you think about it, you can probably recite your morning routine, but you’re not really thinking about it as it’s happening. That’s why tracking yourself works. It makes you consciously aware of your actions and influences your behavior.
For example, you may sit most of the day for work and be unaware of how much you move around. However, wearing a fitness tracker that tracks your steps makes you aware. So now that you know how little steps you take, you may try to find ways to move more to increase your steps.
Awareness nudges you to change your behavior without you intentionally trying to improve. Simply seeing the data can make you act differently, even if you don’t have a specific goal.
You Act Differently When Watched
You naturally desire to present yourself positively to others. If you know you’re being watched, you’ll adjust your actions to be more socially acceptable. Interestingly enough, this still works when you’re watching yourself.
For example, if you were writing down everything you eat and drink, you may grab something healthier instead of junk food, even if you don’t have a goal to improve your diet. The fact that you’re tracking yourself will influence your behavior to make better choices without setting a goal.
You’ll Find Patterns And Want To Fix Them
When you track yourself, you will discover patterns in your behavior over time. You’ll likely discover patterns that you don’t like and feel compelled to change them.
For example, if you track your sleep, you may discover you get less than 6 hours a night during the week. Your inclination may be to try to get more sleep by getting to bed earlier. Your brain wants to fix problems, so you’ll unconsciously want to fix them.
Small Wins, Big Rewards
Dopamine, often called the feel-good chemical of the brain, causes feelings of satisfaction, excitement, and motivation. It rewards progress, no matter how small, and motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing. It is even released if you’re anticipating a reward.
You can use this to your advantage since tracking yourself and adjusting your behavior, no matter how small, can release dopamine. As a result, your motivation to keep achieving without setting any goals is enough for you to continue to pursue self-improvement.
So, watching your step count increase, building a fitness streak, and completing a workout to see how long and how many calories you burned will release dopamine and help keep you moving forward.
Tracking Gives You Feedback
Tracking yourself makes you aware of your behavior and influences your choices. It creates a feedback loop. The longer you track something, the more you’ll see changes. The more you see changes, the more you feel motivated to keep improving without having to set a goal.
For example, you might go for a walk, and afterward, your fitness tracker will provide feedback on how many steps you took, calories you burned, and how long you walked. You internalize the feedback and subconsciously plan your next walk, maybe to walk a little farther or take more steps. Over time, this feedback cycle is shifting your behavior. Simply seeing progress reinforces more positive behavior, creating a cycle of incremental improvements.
Tracking Leads To Curiosity
Another effect of tracking is that it makes you curious. Once you see data about yourself, you naturally start asking questions. You’ll wonder if you can do more or what would happen if you did things differently. Your mind will begin to think of possibilities, driving you to keep exploring, learning, and improving.
The moment you see a surprising number, change, or result in your data, your brain starts searching for why. Your brain wants answers, so you start paying more attention to your behavior to solve the mystery. You’ll naturally experiment and test your theories to answer those questions. As a result, your curiosity is driving behavior changes. All of this without setting any goals.
Your Brain Turns Tracking Into A Game
People are naturally drawn to games because they tap into our brain’s mechanisms that drive behavior, motivation, and pleasure. The type of game doesn’t matter. Video games, board games, mobile games, fitness challenges, and tracking yourself will trigger those feel-good chemicals and rewards that keep you coming back for more. For example, if you walk 5,000 steps, you’ll think about beating that number the next time you track them.
Winning a game, leveling up, unlocking new features, collecting rewards, and making progress keep you engaged and reinforce your desire to keep playing.
How Do You Know What To Track?
There is such a thing as too much data. In fact, too much data can make it hard to make a well-informed decision because it can be interpreted in different ways. That’s why what you track should relate to the behavior you’re trying to change.
For example, if you want to lose weight, then keep a food journal. If you want to improve your fitness, use an app or fitness journal to track your activity. If you want to improve the quality of your sleep, keep a sleep journal.
Start small and introduce more data as needed, regardless of what you’re tracking. Even one data point, such as the number of steps you take a day, can be the catalyst for positive life changes.
The Takeaway
Tracking yourself is a powerful way to change your habits without setting a goal. It makes you aware of your behavior. When you’re aware, you will begin to act differently. Over time, you will find patterns in your behavior, compelling you to fix it. When you make small changes, your brain rewards you, motivating you to do it again. You’ll receive feedback that shows the results of your efforts and sparks the curiosity that drives questions to continue to improve. All of this without setting a single goal. So, if you feel like you can’t make progress without a goal, think again.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
