This coaching tool is a complete pain in the you know what

You might know the tool I'm talking about ... tracking! Suzee and I both committed and each tracked something new in February, then we did a deep dive on tracking on the February Practice Lab Community Call.

What is tracking?

In very simple terms, tracking is taking note of anything over a period of time to gather information. For example, as a result of the conversation we had with Tommy Orr in our February Masterclass, I tracked my daily protein intake for the month on an app (I used Chronometer). But health topics are, of course, not the only thing you can have a client track. And apps are not the only way to track.

In the course of my work with clients, I have them track commitments like exercise and sales calls, note moments of gratitude, log times something is avoided or annoying, track interactions on dates, thoughts about work, and money earned and speant. Basically, I will have clients track just about anything.

They don't just track things on apps, though that can be very helpful. We use spreadsheets, calendars, texts or email notes, and pen and paper.

And, February's experiment in the Practice Lab reminded me how annoying tracking can be!

The immediate benefits of tracking anything

I was reminded immediately how the minute you start tracking something, behavior is modified without even really trying. For example, I constantly found myself thinking about the makeup of my meals just because I knew that I would be inputting the data into the app. I liked seeing the stats, the colors and gridlines. It was like a game. And the thought of logging had me attempt to modify choices so that the data was net positive.

This is a result of tracking that I hear often with clients: even when we don't commit to anything specific, just tracking causes change because we are now mindful, present, aware.

Exacerbated failure

But, back to the annoying part: first, this tool requires something of you/your client - the tracking itself is a new behavior. And one that can take some time to integrate into your day. The second annoyance is a byproduct of the tracking exercise: when data shows "failure."

So in my case, I had a protein goal, but I made no real commitments to a number. Well in my head I knew what I wanted to achieve, but I never once hit the goal in the month of tracking. Thought I didn't actually commit to a number, the results at the end of the day didn't always feel great - I never completed the grid lines and "win". In fact, most days I felt like I was failing. Mind you, I was making the same choices (mostly) around food that I would have without the tracking, but this tracking had me deal with what that actually meant.

What is failure?
So beware, tracking can actually bring up failure in two capacities with yourself and clients:

• Did you actually follow through on your commitment to do the tracking?
• What did your tracking data tell you?

When Suzee and I talked about framing the context of the tracking exercise and how we were going to use the data we collected, it was helpful to me. It reminded me to set expectations with clients on how to approach anything we decide to have them track and give permission to feel disappointed at times on the tracking journey. Pre-meditating those bad things can actually help to create the plan for when they come up. And the plan typically is: keep going!

We can help our clients really dig in to how to make changes when we know what we are actually dealing with, and tracking data helps.

So, what do you most need to track? How would you track it and make it fun? And how do you think you would react if the data is disappointing? Hit reply and let us know! We are compiling a list of our favorite tracking exercises to add to the SEAR Toolkit.