The Four Pillars of Habit Building Series: Pillar No 2: Monitering

Morning Everyone!

Welcome to Day 2 of my 4 Pillars of Habit Building series where I discuss what I learned from "Better Than Before" by the fabulous Gretchen Ruben.  (If you missed Day 1 then don't worry all of the posts will remain live on the home page and don't necessarily need to be read in order).

Yesterday we talked about Pillar no 1: Foundation and how it is essential to achieving sustainable habit change. Today, I want to delve into the second pillar, Monitering.

This pillar is all based around the concept that we manage what we monitor (and no this has nothing to do with your computer screen, sorry babe!)

Monitering is an observational strategy for habit building and it is based on the same train of thought that introduced us to food diaries, time-logs and the pedometer. When we constantly track what we are doing we are more likely to continue because we can easily see our changes and progress. 

Let's take the pedometer example. A pedometer measures how many steps you take in a day with the most common goal being 10,000. If, lets say, the first day you put it on you realize you are only achieving 8,000, steps this will make you more motivated to increase your steps the next day. Monitering is not only excellent for progress tracking and therefore motivation but it also lets us track plateaus so we know when to get off our a**es and shake things up. 

This is also the same concept that drives goal-setting theory. In order to achieve our goals we must make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely). By monitoring the habits we are trying to change we are invoking the core concept of measuring our goals. Furthermore this has a collateral effect, as measuring our progress helps to make sure our goals are timely and realistic, making us less likely to give up out of impatience. 

Monitering also develops self-awareness, studies show that many people did not realize most of their detrimental eating habits existed until they were told to diarise everything they put in their mouths. In turn, having self-awareness is critical to improving our self-control. As the age-old saying goes, the first step to solving a problem, is admitting you have one. This is also true for habits, if you are unable to be aware of and critically analyse a habit, the chances of you changing it are much slimmer.

Finally, monitoring allowed me to track the things that diminished my self-awareness and therefore my self control. For example, I realized that when I drank alcohol, I spent more money, lost more sleep and craved foods I didn't want.

So how can you monitor your habit changes? There are several apps that can do this for you as well as other technology, particularly if your goals are diet and exercise focused. You could also create a spreadsheet, or if you're old school like me, use good old-fashioned pen and paper!

Let me know what strategies work for you for keeping yourself in check in the comments, I'd love to hear them! Also, don't forget to check back tomorrow to find out how you can use Pillar No 3: Scheduling. 

I hope you all have a happy, healthy and productive day and I will see you soon!