Get better every day in these four areas and you’ll be unstoppable. Here’s how to incorporate your own personal KPIs to your life so you can level up.

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In my 30s, I spent time working in corporate public relations and marketing.

I had a fancy title and worked in a fancy office in the Empire State Building.

We did fancy things like hire celebrities to trick people into caring about silly brands and products.

There were events.

Travel.

And meetings.

Lots of meetings.

Meetings about getting ready for meetings.

Meetings about how those meetings went.

And every year, you’d have meetings with Non Playable Character (NPC) middle managers about how well we were doing with all of the above.

They broke down all of the little things you are doing well (and not-so-well).

And then mapped out the arbitrary things you must do for the next arbitrary time frame going forward to keep your job … or perhaps even get a tiny little promotion.

“Here are your set of goals that you must achieve to stay relevant in this irrelevant field.”

They call those goals or objectives your key performance indicators (or KPIs).

What are key performance indicators (KPIs)?

KPIs are measures that hold you accountable to certain trackable actions within your business. Usually things that help drive more productivity, efficiency, learning and of course, revenue.

In the office place, you KPIs can be associated with leveling up your skill set by attending conferences, hitting certain sales targets, or even just showing up to work on time consistently.

They give you a bit of an ongoing score that the NPCs can track throughout the year.

If you hit those KPIs, congrats, you won and maybe now they’ll recognize your hard work.

If you don’t, uh oh …

“We might have to schedule a larger conversation about your inability to contribute regularly.”

So I started workshopping more ways to incorporate my own personal KPIs into life: Daily metrics that provide accountability towards my own goals.

What if we took a page from the corporate world of suck and flipped it on its head to reinvent life?

Today, I’m going to break down the four personal KPIs you should set for yourself that will help you achieve new levels of health, clarity and happiness.

Let’s get into it.

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You know you need to and want to get better. But how?

You’re at the age of 40 (maybe older). Life is a bit of a monotonous slog right now. Work. Kids. Emails. Weekends. Adulting. Repeat.

You need a fresh jolt of energy.

Where do you start?

How do you even know if you’re getting better?

What are the things that you can track to make sure it’s happening?

Most people see this as a reason to do some complete 180-degree lifestyle overhaul.

“I’m going to reinvent myself.”

I’m all for that. In fact, I’ve written a couple of newsletters about reinvention after 40 years old.

But, in most of these cases, those grandiose dreams end up being just that … dreams.

You bite off way more than you can chew and end up burning out.

Then you give up because you assume (incorrectly) that you simply cannot achieve the things you’d dreamed of and you’re just going to have to settle for the monotony.

I reject this narrative.

You absolutely can and should work to improve your life, to simplify the things you have control of in your life, and to make your life work better for you.

But, it’s going to take tiny little steps to do it.

Hell, even an hour per day is enough to unlock massive potential if you can commit to being consistent.

It’s time to simplify this process with four easy-to-pull daily lever-moving tasks and behaviors that will help you improve not just your fitness and health, but your entire life.

Personal KPIs give you a roadmap to self development

You want to improve in multiple areas of life and now you’ll have a system in place to make sure that you are making those improvements.

And the beauty of this approach is that it doesn’t require a Herculean effort to get better.

It’s all about small behaviors done daily (or at least most days).

Why does this work?

James Clear talks about the power of making small improvements daily and watching the interest compound over time.

“If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”

– James Clear, Atomic Habits

We could probably debate the actual math behind whether it’s possible to realistically do that. Sure.

But, the point is this: Small improvements done consistently well over time is a helluva lot easier to manage than doing the same New Years Resolutions over and over again, hoping this will be the year they finally work.

Personal KPIs make your self improvement manageable.

No more trying to white knuckle your way through a really tough to follow total transformation that includes rigid rules and dietary restriction.

This is just a simple way to make small little changes every day for the rest of your life and it will echo throughout the rest of your life, too.

It’s not just about diet and exercise, but a holistic approach to getting a little better in everything from your relationships to your happiness and fulfillment.

“Tracking daily metrics, in other words, is like a training regime for your will. Like many, you might be embracing the new year with a long list of ambitious resolutions. This is great. But perhaps before you dive into your big plans you should spend a month or two first tracking the small.”

— Cal Newport

There are 4 Personal KPIs that you should track

A year ago, I hit the wall. Face first. And realized that life was life’in way too hard for me. A change was needed.

It was then that I decided to whip out my journal and chart a better path forward.

My goal was to make my 40s the best decade of my life.

But that hit the curb when the pandemic had very different ideas on how to live happily.

As we crawled out of that hellscape, it took a massive toll on my ability to see the bigger picture.

I doubled down into productivity advice and tried to really take my business to the next level (on top of the whole parenting and stay at home dad thing).

It led to burnout.

In order to recover from that burnout, I had to get better.

I had to get more intentional with how I approached my day and how I lived my life.

No more living it on someone else’s terms, delaying my own gratification, and hoping that one day I’d finally actualize a better life for myself.

Instead, I decided to take back control of my time, my interests, my health.

And I identified four areas that would be the most important for me to craft this sort of reinvention.

Health — your composition

My goal is to live until at least 90 years old.

I’m 45 as of writing this, which means I’m at the halfway point.

And the second half of my life is all about prioritizing my health. Gone are the days of grinding away in the gym for endless hours, beating up my body with crazy high intensity work.

Instead, I’m safeguarding my body for the long haul with minimalistic, short bodyweight style training that I can perform anywhere (especially great for me since I live in a tiny Brooklyn apartment).

My workouts are about 20-25 minutes each.

My nutrition is simplified, too.

My focus is on obtaining a lifestyle with my fitness and diet so I no longer have to think too hard about it. It’s all on autopilot now.

Just easy-to-manage portion control methods to make sure I’m getting the right balance of my macros and including plenty of fiber from fruits and vegetables.

My initial goal with that approach was to just make things simple. That was it.

I was burned out from trying to optimize every little calorie, macro, set, and rep.

But as it turns out, this approach was so simple that I’ve never been more consistent in my life.

And I’m now in the best shape of my life at 45.

Every day now, I make it a point to do one thing to move my body. Usually that’s just my regular strength training routine.

But on some days, I might only have time for a round of bodyweight squats.

Other days, that daily movement requirement is a long walk.

I’m not rigid with the method, I’m just a stickler for doing more than nothing daily.

Mind — improve your knowledge base

I hit a point where I realized that I’ve been out of the workforce for over a decade.

I’m 45 years old. I’m essentially not incredibly hirable anymore. And that’s okay. My goal going forward is to keep building my own personal brand business.

Formal education is just the foundation.

It’s the beginning of the process that helps you learn how to learn.

Unfortunately, too many people stop expanding their brain after grade school years.

Over half of all Americans read below a 5th Grade level.

Meaning that my daughter is currently able to read at the same level or even better than a majority of U.S. adults.

You simply cannot stop learning.

It’s imperative if you want to continue to survive this second stage of life.

• Learn a new skill related to your career to improve your credentials, resume or current employment status.
• Read more books so you can become more interesting.
• Learn how to build that side hustle so you can eventually build a second or even primary revenue.

Do not stop learning.

If you are not learning, your brain is going to atrophy.

Stagnation is slow death.

Make it a goal to spend a few minutes per day learning something new. That’s it.

Relationships — community

We are going through a bit of a loneliness pandemic.

Nearly four out of every five parents would value a way to connect with other parents outside of work and home. That was 82% of moms and 74% of dads, according to this survey.

Only 39-percent of adults in the U.S. said that they felt very connected to others.

We’re staring at phones, acting like we’re connecting with real humans. It’s not working.

Time to hit the reset button and go back to what worked for centuries beforehand: Reach out and actually connect with people.

Break out of your antisocial shell.

Avoid the urge to follow some red pill bro bullshit nonsense about hiding away in monk mode for six months.

Instead, actually use your phone for what it was originally intended: Call or text someone you care about.

Make it a point to connect with someone through a meaningful conversation every single day. Imagine if you reached out to one person every day over the next year.

What if half of those connections were networking or business leads?

Think about the opportunities for personal connection, growth and even career advancement you’d experience.

Read this newsletter about how to build a better personal network using your existing connections.

Play — have fun

We’ve been convinced that once formal education and school is over that it’s time to grow up and be serious. And we lose any and all sight of having a good damn time.

Stop that shit right now.

Every single day from here on out, I want you to do something fun. Even for just a few minutes.

• Laugh.
• Play.
• Dance.
• Sing.
• Have more sex.

Don’t do it to burn calories or learn something. Do it because it lights you up inside. Because it makes you feel like a kid again. Do it because it’s just fucking fun.

Remove all expectations and just get into a deeper flow state.

How to track your personal KPIs (make it simple)

When you put all four of these together, you start to see how the path forward to a better lifestyle becomes attainable.

But committing to the four personal KPIs is not enough.

You must track them to hold yourself accountable. Just like they do at your office place.

Otherwise, you will fall off of your habits, and end up right back at square one. Just like those empty New Years Resolutions.

Don’t overthink this.

It doesn’t require you to download Notion and start some entire intricate process with bullet journals and online trackers and smartphone apps. You don’t have time for that.

I get annoyed when I see productivity gurus preach about some elaborate metric tracking system using a bunch of spreadsheets and apps.

It leads to overthinking. And if you’re like me, you’ll end up spending more time on the setup and design of those apps than on actually taking action towards your goals.

I had a business coach call this sexy procrastination.

You feel like you’re doing something productive because you’re working, but all that planning and setting things up is not getting you anywhere close to achieving your personal KPIs.

Keep it simple.

My favorite method for tracking personal KPIs is a desk calendar

This is a similar method that I use for students who work with me to get better with their nutrition and fitness.

It’s simple.

And requires zero smartphone apps or any overthinking.

On days that you hit your four personal KPIs, you will mark that calendar with an “X.”

On days that you don’t hit your metrics, you will leave that day blank.

At the end of the month, you’d like to be at least 80-percent consistent (please don’t strive for perfection, that’s unattainable and just not realistic).

Over the course of a month, 80-percent consistency leads to 24 total days. In other words, you are looking for 24 “Xs” on your calendar every month.

Take this one step further to lock in your consistent habit by aiming for the “Never Miss Twice” rule:

You can accept that perfection is the enemy of progress, and therefore, you understand that life will happen and you’ll end up missing a day every once in a while.

The never miss twice rule states that you can miss that one day, but you cannot miss the next.

Even if that next day is a smaller version of what you’d normally do, your job is to keep the momentum going in any way possible.

For example: One of my personal KPIs is to spend time learning something new every day.

Usually this comes from my daily reading habit of consuming a nonfiction book.

Let’s say one of my kids is sick and I have to go into dad mode and it throws my day off.

I end up missing a day of reading target.

The next day, I cannot miss.

Even if it means that I’m only reading a page, even just a few paragraphs of that book, I cannot miss it.

This ensures I keep the consistency and the momentum.

It’s easier mentally to keep the momentum going than it is to have to stop and start again.

Never. Miss. Twice.

Crush your goals by tracking them with Personal KPIs

Your daily metrics and personal KPIs should touch on all four of these principles:

• Body (health)
• Mind (learning)
• Soul (play)
• Community (relationships)

Aim to do one small thing per day to satisfy each of those four personal KPIs to help get out of that rut, unlock more skills and knowledge and lead to a more fulfilling life.

Remember: Even little progress is still progress.

If you worked out for 15 minutes today, that counts.

Only read one page? Perfect.

Didn’t have time for a 60 minute phone call, so you opted for a simple text just to tell a buddy you were thinking of them? It works.

Even 15 minutes of play and having fun is enough to see positive results towards better mental health.

If you do that, you’ll be well on your way to reinventing your life, taking back control of your time, and recapturing your energy.

Now go forth and crush it.

I hope you found this useful. If so, I’d appreciate it if you sent this newsletter to one person you think would benefit from my writing today.

And as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “personal KPIs” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete