Keep Score #269

In our last +1, we had fun cracking open a tiny nutshell of the 4 Disciplines of Execution.

Quick quiz: Can you recall them?

Quick answers: 1. Know your Wildly Important Goal. 2. Focus on your Lead Measures. 3. Keep score. 4. Stay accountable.

I promised we’d talk more about keeping score. Here it goes.

As the 4DX guys point out, keeping score is important. In fact, it’s super important.

They tell us to imagine bowling into a curtain. It’s not very fun to watch your ball disappear behind a curtain and not know how you did, eh? You’d stop playing pretty much immediately.

And, they tell us to imagine Venus Williams playing her sister Serena. In one scenario they’re hitting the ball back and forth just for fun. No score. In another scenario, they’re keeping score and playing for a championship at Wimbledon. Which scenario has just a tad more energy? Right. When the score is clear and it matters.

Guess what?

That’s why we need to keep score in our lives.

It’s a REALLY powerful way to jack up our intensity to levels and give ourselves a shot at actualizing our potential.

(Side note: Remember that +1 where we talked about the study in which people were split up into two groups: One got a pedometer to measure their number of steps and the other didn’t. The group that “kept score” with the pedometer walked a mile more than the other group.)

Another quiz: Remember WHAT the 4DX guys say we’re supposed to keep track of? Not just whether or not we hit our goals (our “lag measures”) but whether or not we did the things that will help us achieve the goals (our “lead measures”).

So… What’s your WIG? And, what’s your Lead Measure to hit that?

KEEP SCORE!!

Dial up the intensity. And have fun crushing it.