Removing Your Addiction To Stats

One area in particular I wanted to focus on in 2013 is eliminating my addiction to numbers and stats. I want to enjoy what I do and let go of the worry of the results.

In my final post of 2012 I mentioned about how long I’ve been blogging, how many hits I’ve had, how many articles I’ve written and so on. They are indeed milestones and for a me a great reflection of how far I’ve come.

However, in recent months, I’ve been too concerned with how many hits I’ve been getting on a daily basis; how many subscribers I have; have my hits gone up today? Why did they go down, etc. To be that engrossed in your own numbers is truly detrimental to your success in anything that you do.

It’s perfectly okay to pay attention to them on a regular basis, perhaps weekly or monthly. It’s good to know you’re heading in the right direction. However to be concerned about the daily is definitely a sign you’re more than likely addicted.

Addiction

I recently touched upon the realisation that I was addicted to food. I now know that the same goes for stats.

Towards the latter part of last year I began the process of weaning of myself off the stats. I twitched, I struggled, I gave in a few times to temptation and expanded my WordPress stats.

It was yet another huge wake up call and a realisation that I was addicted. The habit of checking them had become so deeply engrained and I had to break that habit.

If you’re on the same path and checking stats regularly then you’re taking yourself away from your own greatest reason for blogging.

Goals and Purpose

When you’re too worried about the stats you take yourself away from doing service and providing value to your readers. You’re more concerned about what you’re getting than what you’re giving.

If you see your numbers go down you may feel disheartened and any writing that you do will be affected by the way you feel.

You’re essentially focussing on the eating the fruit before planting the seed.

It’s okay to have a vision, to have a dream or a goal, but don’t be saturated by the daily results. Let those go and bring your attention back to the important work you are doing.

Forget the temporary peaks and troughs and look at your ultimate outcome. Inject your outcome and purpose at the beginning of your tasks.

Forget about how many tweets your articles get. Forget about how many Facebook likes you get. Greatness is not measured by numbers.

Numbers

The numbers game will only take you so far in any area of your life. Most of your attention should be paid to the enjoyment of whatever you do.

There are many gauges we adopt to measure our progress including, time, money, statistics, number of clients, age, distance, etc and many more. They are all relevant and applicable but don’t make them the ultimate focus for what you do. Ultimately the numbers won’t motivate you, the joy of doing will. We never need to be motivated to do the things we love.

So don’t focus on the numbers. Don’t be addicted to checking your stats daily. Just enjoy the journey to your ultimate outcome.