“What gets measured gets managed” – are you hiding in the bliss of the unaware?
The phrase “What gets measured gets managed” was recently shared with me and it stuck. A couple of weeks later, I connected a new app to track what I was actually eating… and there were lightbulb moments everywhere. Suddenly, I could see with fresh perspective not only what I was doing well, but also the choices that weren’t really serving me.
And in this stage of perimenopause, I realised I can’t simply attribute every change in my body and energy to shifting hormones. Some of it is within my influence — and noticing that gives me something to work with. (Time will tell.) What surprised me most was how quickly clear feedback shifted my motivation. I noticed my cravings disappeared because my values were suddenly aligned with the choices I was making. The feedback wasn’t judgment — it was fuel (pun intended)
But this post isn’t actually about eating.
It’s about the clarity that comes from measuring and paying attention.
The truth is, “the bliss of the unaware” can feel wonderfully cosy. Ignorance can wrap around us like a soft blanket — no confronting facts, no uncomfortable truths, no need to change what’s familiar. But the head-in-the-sand approach doesn’t make unhelpful habits any less damaging. It just delays the moment we face them… and often makes the consequences a little louder when they eventually arrive.
Memory is unreliable — life is busy (and we forget) and we naturally recall the parts that confirm what we would believe to be true. Not knowing allows us to avoid what we suspect might be affecting our health and wellbeing… simply because we never take the step to see it clearly.
Technology can help, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Measuring might be as simple as tallying glasses of water to make sure you’re hydrated. And the beautiful thing? When you see the numbers — even something as small as four ticks on a page — it can spark a quiet motivation to go for five. The progress becomes visible, and that visibility reinforces the behaviour.
At the other end of the spectrum, you might use a smartwatch to track sleep or HRV, or a continuous glucose monitor to understand how certain foods impact your mood or stress.
In a coaching setting, measurement is just one part of the picture. Before we ever get to the numbers, we explore why measuring matters for that person. And we look at how to use any tool with curiosity — never judgement.