December Gifts

Connecting the dots through observation – tiny changes can have big impact – if you notice the dots

Small choices – good and not-so-good – can add up and be reflected back to you. If you pay attention.

Start with how you feel when you wake up in the morning. Are you rested or still groggy? Do you feel energized to start the day? Honestly, life can get in the way of a good sleep many nights. However, you might be able to compare how you feel when you wake to how you felt the morning before.

Are you planning a workout? How does that feel today? Like you can keep going? Or is it a slog? Perhaps it always feels tough, but how does it compare to your last session?

Honestly, this can be difficult. For many of us, we’re often on autopilot and it’s sometimes hard just to remember what we did an hour before.

A simple tool that many are using are wearables. These can be watches, rings, bands or other items. Some have subscriptions, some do not. Some are costly, others are not. All provide some simple datapoints that might help you connect the dots to choices you made the day before. Ideally, a wearable that you sleep with and that measures your sleep, heart rate and samples heart rate variability, is a good way to wake up and “check” whether numbers and how you feel match. Importantly, you can compare them to the day before.

Do you need one? No.

Might it help you pay closer attention to the health choices you make throughout the day? Yes.

Why might this matter?

I can tell you from personal experience, I’ve noticed my metrics from the wearable in the morning and connected these to how I feel. I’ve noticed I feel crummy if I have late meals, alcohol, and stress before bed. Sounds just like what you read online, right?

Not exactly. No one likes being told what to do. We have to see it and feel it for ourselves.

It’s about a bit of help noticing. Small experiments to improve how you sleep, feel, and walk through life. Metrics that can tell you how your Secret Cell is doing.

Challenge for the month:

Can you start with a quick assessment each morning and take note how you feel compared to the morning before? What might be the good or not-so-good choices that contributed?

Kathryn