Stealth goals: Tracking is awareness

I’m tracking a couple things about which I have no immediate goals. Here’s the reason why: tracking is awareness.

I believe in Jim Collin’s maxim, that if you have more than three strategic goals you don’t have any.


So I have two strategic goals and a couple of stealth goals.
Stealth goals are something new for me. The idea is simply to track behavior I wish to modify, without setting an actual goal of behavior modification. I think tracking creates awareness creates change, without having to get too constipated about it.

I track in my weekly planner, which keeps it simple. And truthful. And easily verifiable.


I’ve noticed the simple act of tracking my exercise creates a greater awareness of the heady benefits from that exercise. And a desire for more. (Makes you want to track funner things, doesn’t it, things that are heart healthy too, things like frolic.)

One of my stealth goals revolves around sugar/carbs. I eat well generally, by the standards of many Americans, very well. By this I mean in a mostly healthy way, fairly consistently. I’m not much on deserts or candy or other sugary/fatty confections . . .

. . . Yet these two areas would concern Dr. Oz, and do concern my very cool doctor

Area of Interest Number One: Mountain Dew
(Hence my nickname Dew, bestowed by one Russell Harris)

Area of Interest Number Two: Bagels with cream cheese.

That’s it. Number Two comes and goes [a pause to let you insert joke here if you must]. Number One is constant, like a happy puppy at my side begging, begging, begging, play with meeee, pah-leeze.

I’m not quitting these two habits, I’m not even talking trash to them (yet) — I’m just monitoring intake accurately.

I’ll keep you posted (wink wink).

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