How to Know When to Move On:

Tracking for work, mood, food, relationships & more to know when to cut the cord

“Is this even working….?” 

How many times have you asked yourself if a diet, workout program, skincare routine, or even relationship is working for you? The answer matters, right, because you want to know when you should move on so you can get the results or experience you’ve been hoping for. 

It’s why we constant chase the “What’s the best…” posts and articles. Despite the headlines, the true answer is always, it depends. It depends on you and all the things that make you unique, from goals to physicality. 

What this means is that you have to figure out how to answer the question for yourself, rather than letting someone else tell you what’s working for you. 

And one simple exercise will help you do that, whether it’s a relationship, a job, an eating plan, or a workout program. It’s called tracking.

WHAT CAN YOU TRACK

You can track anything! A friend who works as a matchmaker in D.C. told me recently that there was once an app that you could use to track whether a relationship was bringing you joy. The idea was that if you felt good in the relationship on most days, then you knew you were in a healthy relationship. If not, you knew it was time to move on. You could take the same approach for any relationship, such as a friendship. Sometimes friendships can feel one-sided. It can be helpful to step away from the feelings through tracking. Sometimes things feel a certain way in the heat of the moments but aren’t in fact what they feel. It’s important to check yourself. This way, if a critical conversation is needed then you can approach it calmly and matter-of-factly. 

Other things you can track include: 

• General mood 

• Sleep

• Water

• Workout plan

• Eating plan

• Skincare routine

• Job (happiness, mood, relationships, mental health)

• Romantic relationship

• Friendships

• Social media usage

• Meditation/Breathing

• Job satisfaction

HOW TO TRACK

When deciding what to track, ask yourself first what question you are hoping to answer. For example, if you’re tracking sleep, you don’t want to just track sleep. You want to track it to answer a question, right? Such as: “If I put my phone away 15min before I get into bed each night, consistently, do I feel more energized in the morning?”

Get specific. Rather than asking is this eating plan working? First, define what “working” means. What were your expectations in the beginning?? Is it fat loss, muscle gain, both, less cravings, reduced blood pressure…what’s the goal?

Then you can track your progress measurements from day one of the eating plan over at least 60 days. 

Similarly, is this relationship working for me? What does working mean? Fulfilled, happy, safe, empowered….what does it mean to “work” in this context? Track how you feel over time to observe. After a month or so, look at your tracker and see what stands out.

WHY TRACKING? 

Tracking helps you approach an aspect of your life that you want to improve or are questioning. It helps you avoid making emotionally-based decisions because it grounds you in data. It can help show you whether you are lacking consistency; catastrophizing; not giving something enough time for results to materialize; or in fact need to make a change. 

𝘗𝘚 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘴. 𝘖𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳, 𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶! 𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘵.