Don't Chase Vanity Metrics
Welcome to the one day at a time podcast where we forget about yesterday. We don't worry about tomorrow. It's what are we going to do today? This all matters because you've only ever had or will ever have the fantastic twenty four hours a day you're about to embark on. So hopefully this episode is going to give you some daily dose of wisdom that you can take action on today to improve your life.
Speaker 1:And remember, all it takes is one day at a time. Good morning, everyone. We're back. Bit of a different voice note today. Let me let me speak about some observations I made on the weekend, which leads into what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1:So the topic today is about vanity metrics. What do we mean by vanity metrics? It's stuff that's easy to do, we're socially visible. We're just doing it to tick a box for what other people will will think of us. Right?
Speaker 1:And there's vanity metrics in terms of like relationships and friendships. There's a lot of that going on, which I definitely noticed in the weekend. I went to watch a football, Wales Three One all with Switzerland. Come on, Wales. Then I went to this pub in Chelsea.
Speaker 1:Of course, you know, that's gonna be like, but it was, you know, exactly what you think it's gonna be like, but maybe worse. I went with two good friends, but, you know, just observing around me that most people there like, you know, I might be wrong, but I think I'm right. Not not real friends. Just there for, you know, photos and layout, like, more like acquaintances. You know, they're not they're not gonna phone each other.
Speaker 1:It's they're not gonna help each other till 3AM taking them if your car's broken down. Having lots of them in a group is gonna feel good metric. They feel surrounded by people, but sometimes the most lonely people in the world because they are surrounded by everybody, but there's no depth there. I think a lot of people fall into this trap. And then on the flip side, you've got the education vanity metrics, which is like reading loads of books all the time and you're reading them too fast, then you're not actually taking them in, but you're posting about reading all the books.
Speaker 1:You know, I read a lot of books in general, but I do read at a slower pace. Like, I do take it all in, and that's why we do book club is because on book club we go over what we've read, what are we implementing, what are we learning. It's better to reread the same book than read a new book in a way because if you reread the second book you get more from it. And I think that's what people need to get in a habit of doing is go deeper into things as opposed to just surface level shit all the time. Right?
Speaker 1:So if you feel like you're on the surface level vanity metrics ticking the box, oh, I'm going to the gym, oh, I've bought a plan vanity metric. Oh, I've bought a plan. I've booked a gym session. I've got new gym clothes. You know, I've got all the gear and all this stuff, but then you're not actually following through with action that you're just doing all that for the Vanity Metric side, oh, yeah, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1:It's like lip service type of thing. A lot of people fall into that trap. If you wanna change yourself, you've gotta change your identity. You can't just change for a week and then go back to who you are. That's not how it works.
Speaker 1:Like you have to change who you are. Like you can set goals, but the person you become is the reason we set the goals, not so much the goal itself. Does that make sense? So we shouldn't obsess over the wrong metric because if we do that, we're gonna waste our life. We honestly, people are wasting lives just chasing nonsense.
Speaker 1:You've got to go for depth and everything, depth over width at all times. And it's more so like the vanity metrics. The thing is it sucks for people who chase vanity because you got to do stuff when nobody's looking, nobody's listening. The things you do when nobody's listening and looking are the things that matter. Waking up early, going for a walk, going for a workout, going for that run, staying in later to do your finish your work project, reading, studying, all these things you're like, oh, people are always doing stuff, you get four more.
Speaker 1:And guess what, like those are the things that make the difference, not the stuff you owe not the stuff people always post on social media. And now that's a difference. It's gonna make you the person that's gonna stand out and you're gonna you're gonna get further in your life by doing the things that are not sexy, right? They're not gonna get you queued up online, but they're gonna advance you towards where you wanna be. Right?
Speaker 1:That is the most important thing. You know, you can go, you know, you can you can go on social media if you want to pause everything you're doing, but, you know, there's these things you know, missing lunches, going to the gym during lunch, like going for your walks, like I don't know there's a lot of these things that all of us are doing that nobody sees, right? Nobody sees. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do them. But some people won't even do it if nobody sees it.
Speaker 1:Think about it. Some people, if they go nights out and don't get a photo and a new outfit, they actually think it's a waste of a night because they've got a new outfit on, they should've had a picture. Or they go on a hike, and if they don't have a photo or the hike, then it never happened. Like, people are doing things now just for the vanity, not even taking in the moment, not even taking in the views where they go, but just because they wanna take the vanity metric off. And it is so sad.
Speaker 1:It is so sad. And it's this problem people have. Living for the weekend. Like, the weekend's got many occasions to to show off. But on the weekday, what are we doing on a weekday?
Speaker 1:Well, nobody talks. One's what are you doing? That's what matters, though. That's most of the week, most of your time. And you look at, like, other metrics, other vanity metrics, like possessions over actually accumulating wealth or financial security assets.
Speaker 1:Possessions are easy because you can show off. New car on lease, new bag, taking a credit card to get new things, new that, do this. They're easy to show off. That doesn't mean anything, though. It can be getting worse in debt.
Speaker 1:What are you doing it for then? Who are you doing it for? You mean? Work. This is one this is one of the worst one.
Speaker 1:Employee employee, big companies who have got, like, employee perks. Oh, 10% off the local gym. Oh, 10% off Subway. Oh, woah, huge perks. That's just fucking vanity metrics where the business being like, yeah, we'll go after employees because of employee perks.
Speaker 1:Nah. That's nowhere near deep enough to help. The depth is employee fulfillment, the belonging they have with the business. Are you putting them into employee training? Are you looking after them?
Speaker 1:Are you giving them Are you making sure they do take the full hour break at lunch and not working past five most of the time? Are you making sure that they're getting on with their co workers? Are you making sure they've been satisfied with the job they're doing? Are you giving them some autonomy to work and do things? Like is that happening?
Speaker 1:Because that's the real thing, right? That's the real thing. Not, you know, signing up to a stupid employee perk website that's nonsense like things that doesn't matter or a terrible percentage of. You see, I've seen them and they're really bad. Again, everyone's guilty of doing this.
Speaker 1:Everyone is guilty of doing this. You know, I was in the gym again, that's another vanity metric. That doesn't mean anything. How are you how's your relationship with food going? How's your relationship with exercise going?
Speaker 1:Are you doing exercise to improve your performance? Are you becoming healthier? You making better choices? Are you being more moderate with your lifestyle? Much more important than how you look and how many hours you spend in the gym.
Speaker 1:Right? Think about it. You've got to optimize for the right thing. And if you're focusing on vanity metrics, you're gonna optimize for vanity metrics. And if you optimize for vanity metrics, your life will be fucked up, basically.
Speaker 1:That's as, like, simple as it gets. We don't wanna be falling in that trap especially in health and fitness. Especially we don't wanna be focusing on the pounds lost of the inches or you know other those things. We're gonna focus on the person we become to be the healthy person. That's the important thing.
Speaker 1:The things that other people don't see, that is what we wanna be at. What do other people don't see is the actual meat of it. Right? But just because other people don't see it doesn't mean it's important, but you have to focus on it. No one else is gonna focus on it.
Speaker 1:No one's gonna tell you to focus on it, but you have to focus on it. And I know for more and I know that social media are gonna pull you and wanna pull you into optimizing for different things. But trust me, the deep satisfaction you get by doing things you know with a benefit in you as a person going to you towards your actual real life goals are far better than the terrible milli millisecond of joy you get from the vanity metrics. It's just true. I just got reminded of that as we can big time.
Speaker 1:I think that's one of the things that COVID has been able to do is it could pull us back a bit, pull us back. You just have to go out every weekend. Let's pull it back. Let's slow down like really to us. It's gonna be different for all of us of course, but what really matters to us.
Speaker 1:Think of what that is and optimise for that and forget about the vanity stuff, okay? Ego is a powerful tool, you can use it for the benefit of yourself, but most of the time it's gonna want you to do things that are not gonna benefit you in the long term. Know, classic vanity, Oh, I'm so busy, I'm so busy. I'm so busy. Right?
Speaker 1:I mean, he's not gone. What are you busy doing more than wasting time all day? Class, is that really good? Just vanity people think you're busy. I don't care.
Speaker 1:What are you doing with your time? What are fulfilled with those busy hours you're doing? Or just complete lunacy? Like what's going on? Right?
Speaker 1:What is going on in those hours? It's not about putting in more hours. Right? It's putting joy in the hours we do and you know, going towards the goals you're gonna be ideally in less hours, we've got more time to do other things. Guys, big topic, very big topic.
Speaker 1:So have a think about it today. Have you been optimizing for vanity or have you been optimizing for the true fulfillment life goals? And if you have been optimizing for vanity, make sure that you stop doing it. And if you wanna optimize for a better life, you need to start focusing on the things that aren't as sexy, but definitely better for you. And I'll leave you with that today, guys.
Speaker 1:Hope you have a good day, and I'll be back tomorrow. Remember, live one day at a time. And that's it. Thank you for listening to the one day at a time podcast with your host, Golf Leer. Hopefully, you understood something I said.
Speaker 1:I hope that some wisdom kind of distilled through into your mind, and I want you to now action it today. I don't want you to think about tomorrow. I don't want you to think about yesterday. I don't want you to think about leaving a review on this podcast. I don't want you to think about going to another website.
Speaker 1:What I want you to is as soon as this podcast ends, you will take action and make the most of today. Ground yourself today. Follow the one day at a time philosophy, and your life will change.
