The amount of fitness tracker technology available now is crazy.
There are rings that track sleep and heart rate, and any number of contraptions that you can slap on your wrist to track your steps, your miles, your routes, your calories, your heart rate, your bowel movement density, etc. etc. etc.
(I may have embellished that last one, but there are apps for tracking your poop)
And some of these fitness trackers are really useful.
For example, BSP NOVA founder, Chris Merritt, uses the ŌURA Ring to track his sleep, heart rate variability, recovery, and readiness. It’s helped him improve his sleep quality, consistency, and time. But here’s the real magic…Chris built a nightly sleep ritual that helped improve his sleep. The real magic was forming those habits that helped him improve his behavior that ultimately improved his sleep.
The Oura ring was the catalyst that launched better sleep, because it gave Chris awareness about how he was sleeping—and that much he can be thankful for.
But, if he didn’t use the ring, and its data, to build healthful habits into his life, it would be pointless—just white noise and added information that would likely frustrate more than help him.
The cool thing about his ring is that it actually broke. He hasn’t had it for over three weeks, but the rituals and habits that he built into his life, with the help of the ring, persist because he thought about using the ring in a productive way.
So…?
By all means, experiment with fitness tracking technology, but if I can offer some advice, think of it as a tool that you use to change the way that you behave, not as something you depend on as some sort of magic bullet that’s going to improve your fitness, or your life. It’s something to center new, positive actions around—an anchor point that triggers the start of life improving habits.
Rather than thinking, “This tracker is going to keep me moving and get me to take 10,000 steps,” try thinking, “How can I use this tracker as a trigger to build good habits into my life.” That subtle alteration in thinking will pay huge dividends in how much your chosen fitness tracker helps you.
It’s the small, daily habits that transform our bodies, our minds, and our lives.
Sure, we can sometimes have big jumping off points and there are experiences that start us down a path in the right direction, but, and at the risk of sounding like a severely broken record, I’m going to say it again,
it’s the consistency of well-formed habits that make the changes that stick.
Use your fitness technology to create great habits that stick even after it breaks, and it’ll be well worth the investment.