My Weight Loss Resolution Fiasco

Like every New Year, this year too I made resolutions.  The top one was to lose weight. As I wrote my resolution in my personal diary,  to my dismay , I found the same resolution written dated a year back !  

Folks,  I am sorry to say that I had failed to keep up my resolution.In fact , instead of losing, I have managed to put on weight . I kept my pen down and thought really hard. Where did I go wrong ?  I did start with a bang , but what happened after a few weeks  ?  Well ... there are always some festivities , ceremonies and get-togethers where we tend to overeat and these situations are bound to happen always.  So does it mean that I will never succeed ?  I became despondent .  But again , I thought harder.

I always like to go to the root of the matter and as I went deeper, I realized that there were two major flaws in my execution of the resolutions.  

1. I did not measure my progress

2. I did not keep it visual. 

Measurements are the keystone of tracking.  If we don't measure, we will never know how we are doing, which way we are heading and when we should come back on track for making progress.  

The basic point is that "the things that gets measured are the things that get done" !

We measure our academic success and try to do better. We measure the time taken to complete assignments and set benchmarks for estimation for completion of tasks.Measurements of schedule variance, defects found in the finished products,  number of complaints lodged , effort variance etc. all are measurements which help us to take informed decisions for the growth of the organization. 

In fact , I remembered that I had written the following verse for the in house magazine in one of my previous organization : 

I wonder…..

How far is the sky ?

Is the threshold large enough to keep it blue ?                          

Scale in one hand and magnifying glass in the other,

I wonder ……

What should we measure so that we can see a problem through ?

Measure , measure, measure,

Take a scale in your hand –

What is the life expectancy of a bug ?

How many defects were introduced ?

How long are we working ?                                       

What can we measure to get a clue ?

                                                                       

How are we doing on effort ?

Is the variance too large ?

Are we varying in schedule ?

How do we know we have reviewed ?

All measurements but no improvements ?

Hey ! This  does not sound correct !

Let us do an ISHIKAWA to get an essence.

Let us  measure our measurements ,

We should not measure what does not make sense.

Measure , measure, measure,

We will continuously  improve !

We have to monitor our thresholds

I am sure our  customers will approve !

So , the root cause of not being able to keep up  my resolution  was that I did not measure what I was eating, how much exercise I was doing and most importantly,  I did not weigh myself  periodically .

I have got myself a new diary and written "My weight loss program" .   I will now write every meal which I eat , all the workout which I do and a weekly log of  my weight . 

And most importantly, I will create a trend chart of my weight measurements and make it the wall paper of  my laptop.   This will serve as a visual dashboard and act as a motivator for me to be on track. 

If we use measurements to improve the organization, don't you think it will help me improve my life? 

Do write your comments.