Manning

That’s a picture of Peyton Manning taken during his press conference after beating Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. He’s one of the most successful, most sought after, most well marketed, most respected, most… Yeah, yeah, yeah you get the idea.

After sitting out a whole year, rehabilitating from a several procedures involving a fused neck, he has once again proven why he is undoubtedly one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play professional football.

Besides the obvious God given talent Peyton has been blessed with, do you know the biggest reason why he’s been so successful?

He measures and analyzes everything.

During the week, he prepares by spending countless numbers of hours:

  • watching film
  • looking at pictures
  • rehearsing game like situations
  • studying everything from both his opponent’s team and his own

With his coach’s help, he learns that in certain situations a team is more likely to do one thing versus another. He gets better each and every week by understanding his own tendencies in response to these conditions. And by the time Sunday rolls around, Peyton and his coaches have put in place a plan of action, if executed well, leads them to success.

This requires an incredible work ethic, but basically what we’re talking about is simply analytics.

Peyton knows, in order to win and be successful, he must elevate the small things in order to celebrate and achieve the big things.

What if you and I were to do this with our dreams, goals and our lives? What if instead of complaining and comparing, allowing resentment to take root, we took ownership? What if we traded the hours spent wasted on things which steal life from us, instead investing those hours on analyzing our own tendencies?

For example, in my career as an Experience Architect, there are many times I have to be up late at night. When I’m traveling with an Artist or Entertainer, my day won’t end until well after midnight. This obviously makes it harder to get up early and hustle on other important things.

But what I experience when I do commit to getting up earlier, spending a few hours on those things, is I feel better about myself and my day tends to be more productive. When I choose to sleep in, I am less productive and more likely to feel like a failure.

By stepping back, distancing myself just a bit, and analyzing these trends, I can create a better plan of action which will lead me to greater degrees of success.

Another example for you might be, analyzing your commute to work. It could look something like this:

When I leave my house at 7:20 am, I get stuck in traffic. This stresses me out, and I’m grumpy and rude to my coworkers. When I leave at 7:10 am, I avoid the traffic and get to work feeling much better. This allows me to be a better friend and better coworker to those around me.

You could then say, well I want to get a promotion in the next year, so others experiencing me as a more joyful and friendlier person would go a long way towards reaching that goal.

According to this value statement, you could easily create a game plan resulting in you leaving the house 10 minutes earlier.

I know for me, sometimes my problems and pain points can be so blinding, I can’t gain any clarity or distance in order to analyze them. But here’s a tough reality I’ve learned.

Maturity means I can both experience my problems and yet, not let them rob me from growing at the same time.

If it’s true you can’t improve something you don’t measure, what analytics do you need to do in order to reach your goals or accomplish your dream this year?

Today’s guest post was written by Josh Collins. For more great work from him, check out his blog or follow him on Twitter.