Desirable result with carrot and stick

Desirable result with carrot and stick. How can we make our activity more interesting? Better statistics can be achieved by one good method. Let the start of a month be your carrot. Let us take a closer look.

Are you always satisfied with the result from your health apps? Maybe not. Regardless if we know the reason for some result, the information we see can generate some negative feelings. What we know is one thing and what we see is another. What we see and follow is probably some kind of statistics. If it does not appear to be desirable, we get disappointed.

An easy way to explain this situation is following. A person is physically active and walks or runs often. He or she has a specific number of steps as a goal. Suddenly that number sinks during a period of one week. It is a result of some other activity, like skiing, swimming or riding a bike. However, this person is aware of the own activity but the statistics does not show good number of the steps.

Well, it is what it is. Can we do anything about it? Yes, it is worth trying at least. Since the first day of a month is a new start for the monthly statistics, you can use it as carrot. Bad conscience and worse results can be your stick. That method can be very stimulative and maybe mitigate a negative development during the month. That is, the higher amount of steps in the start, the higher result you get in the statistics even if there is a period of smaller number of steps.

The first day in month can affect us positively because we know that we can control the end result if we adapt the following days to it. Affecting the result later on in month is however more difficult, simply because you do not have time enough.