In a very similar way, I track my blog. My personal blog was originally intended just for family and friends, but it has grown quite a bit bigger. As I started writing, I became increasingly intrigued by my “stats”. On Wordpress, I’m able to see how many people view each blog post on any given day, see where people are finding my blog, and see likes and comments on each article. This has made me so much smarter about how I write, share, and come up with new material. But even more than that, it keeps me motivated to write! After writing and sharing a blog post, I can’t wait to see the stats regarding how many people read it, where they linked to my blog from, and how many days after people are still looking at that post. Tracking the success of my blog keeps me motivated to share my experiences with others and grow my readership.

I recently read another (much more popular and trending) article on Medium that talked about the importance of tracking how you spend your day, what you invest in, and whether you are progressing towards reaching your goals. After reading this article, I was so motivated and inspired that I downloaded a cost expenses tracker on my phone (I use Dollarbird) to see where my money goes each month and develop a more sophisticated budget. And this article got me thinking…

How do we come to know ourselves? I have always been a huge proponent of self-awareness as the key to discovering yourself. I practice yoga (and want and need to start practicing meditation). I keep a daily journal that I write in every night. I wrote my senior honors thesis in undergrad about how contemplative practices in higher education can lead to heightened self-awareness and increased learning in collegiate students. And I think, with all of this technology we have available to us, it’s time we use it to track ourselves and become more self-aware.

There’s no hiding from the Fitbit if you’re skimping on exercise.

The Wordpress stats are going to stare back at me with empty zeros if I haven’t written this week.

And I can’t tell myself, “Oh, it’s just one milk tea, it’s super cheap, I’ll never know the difference!” When I get that notification on how much I spent eating/drinking out this month.

Our technology can take our self-awareness to a level beyond that, too. We can organize our goals and the steps it takes to reach those goals via apps on our phones. There is an old piece of wisdom that says you are much more likely to take steps towards reaching your goals, and eventually achieve them, if you write them down. But in this day in age, we have our phones on us constantly — what better reminder to think about your long term goals than to have a notification go off, asking you if you’ve achieved that next step in the process yet? How about actually tracking your caloric intake, instead of always just complaining about how you “have got to lose a few”? I think the vast array of phone apps, gadgets, and other methods of self-tracking can really be the turning point for those who want to become more self aware. Yes, there’s even apps to help beginners learn to meditate (I like Beditations and Enso)!

As the New Year — and the resolutions that come with it — quickly approaches, I can’t help but think of all of the promises we make ourselves every January 1, and how many of those are disposed of because we couldn’t be honest with ourselves and truly commit to those goals and lifestyle changes. However, maybe all it takes is a download of one new app to really be brutally honest with ourselves about where we are currently with our goals and where we want to be. And I think personal tracking could really be the answer to tracking our progress and ensuring that we are living the life we want to be living, every day.