If you are a sports fan, you might just have a lot of stats in your head.
Football fans (I’ll start with that because it’s playoff time for both college and professional football) know everything from won-lost records to quarterback ratings. And countless other stats, especially on their favorite teams and favorite players.
Professional golf is starting up again this week in Hawaii. The season opening Sentry Tournament of Champions takes place in Hawaii every year. It is played at Kapalua on the island of Maui.
Golf fans can tell you how many tournaments Scottie Scheffler won last year, how many weeks he has been ranked Number 1 in the world, and how many weeks Tiger Woods was ranked Number 1. (Hint: it isn’t even close.)
For true golf stat nerds, there are probably a hundred statistical categories to peruse.
For instance, there is a category for “First Tee Late Round 1 Scoring Average.” Also for rounds 2, 3, and 4. Also for the Tenth Tee for every round. And, not to play favorites, also for Early Rounds. Golly.
And don’t get me started on baseball, which might have as many stats as every other professional sport combined.
Why? Because statistics tell stories.
In fact it isn’t primarily the fans who look at all those stats on the PGA Tour — it is the players and their caddies. They want to know where they can improve, and stats help them figure that out.
Stats can help you, too.
If you play golf, for instance, and want to score better, keep your own stats. One year someone challenged me to do that. My system was very basic, but it worked.
Good stats this year
Here is why stats are good. They do not, if they are kept accurately, lie to you about how well you did. They are not biased, they don’t judge you, and they will not share themselves with others without your permission.
Serious golfers rarely ask each other, “What did you shoot?” Instead they ask, “How did you play?” Real golfers are much more interested in the second question, because scores can be deceiving.
So here we are at the beginning of a new year, which is a great time to start keeping stats on yourself. And while I’m happy for you to include golf stats, I’m much more interested in something a little deeper. Good.
Just as I was challenged by a friend to keep stats when I played golf, I’m now challenging you to keep stats for your “good.” It is one of the best ways I know of to do good better.
The famous person who had his own way of doing this, and who turned it into a lifetime habit, was the great American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin.
If you want to hear the full story on Dr. Franklin and “good,” you’ll want to come to Do Good Talks in Scottsdale, Arizona, this coming May 9 and 10.
For now, though, here was his basic practice. He would use a notebook, open it, and at the top of the left-page he would write this question: What good can I do today?
On the facing page he would write; What good did I do today?
The answers to his question on the left side of the book, written each morning, were to stimulate his thinking about the possibilities. He might know he had a particular meeting and think about that. Or he might think about an invention he was working on.
He wasn’t usually planning some particular act of good, he was planting the seeds for acts of good.
The right-hand page
At the end of the day, Dr. Franklin would take up his book, think back on the day, and enter any good that he did on the right-hand page. This was not an exercise in pride, it was an exercise in humility and progress.
At least I believe he saw it that way, because in my experience those were my results. That was true whether I was keeping stats on golf or good.
Neither of those can be perfected, and in both areas reflection often reveals missed opportunities.
But while the left-hand page records hopes, the right-hand page tells the tale.
When I played golf seriously, I would think ahead before a round and plan every hole to some degree. Thinking ahead like that helped me set a standard for myself. Would the stats show that I met those expectations, or even exceeded them? Once in a while, yes.
The same is true for your “Do Good Today” book.
And when the right-hand page has three or four or five acts of doing good, you will still be humbled by the opportunities you missed. But you will sleep well.
As you make progress
When I first started planning my golf rounds, I had three areas I’d predict. (The left-hand page.) I would hit a specific number of fairways (e.g. 10 out of 14), a specific number of greens (e.g. 12 out of 18), and I’d have a specific number of putts (e.g. 28).
I didn’t predict bunker shots or penalty strokes, but I still kept them as stats. That’s because I never planned to hit a poor shot, but sometimes I did.
You should do the same with good. Start with being kind, for instance. Just keep track of that one thing for a while. On the left write down how you will be kind that day, and on the right record how you were kind. If you were unkind, write that down as well.
As you get better at being kind, add patience and keep track of that. There are countless categories of good, I suppose, but stick with the broad areas first. Those will help you find specific places where you might still do more good.
My challenge: keep stats for one month on your good. It’s a great way to do more good.
Do good — and keep track of it — it’s in you!
Checking your stats
If you are a sports fan, you might just have a lot of stats in your head.
Football fans (I’ll start with that because it’s playoff time for both college and professional football) know everything from won-lost records to quarterback ratings. And countless other stats, especially on their favorite teams and favorite players.
Professional golf is starting up again this week in Hawaii. The season opening Sentry Tournament of Champions takes place in Hawaii every year. It is played at Kapalua on the island of Maui.
Golf fans can tell you how many tournaments Scottie Scheffler won last year, how many weeks he has been ranked Number 1 in the world, and how many weeks Tiger Woods was ranked Number 1. (Hint: it isn’t even close.)
For true golf stat nerds, there are probably a hundred statistical categories to peruse.
For instance, there is a category for “First Tee Late Round 1 Scoring Average.” Also for rounds 2, 3, and 4. Also for the Tenth Tee for every round. And, not to play favorites, also for Early Rounds. Golly.
And don’t get me started on baseball, which might have as many stats as every other professional sport combined.
Why? Because statistics tell stories.
In fact it isn’t primarily the fans who look at all those stats on the PGA Tour — it is the players and their caddies. They want to know where they can improve, and stats help them figure that out.
Stats can help you, too.
If you play golf, for instance, and want to score better, keep your own stats. One year someone challenged me to do that. My system was very basic, but it worked.
Good stats this year
Here is why stats are good. They do not, if they are kept accurately, lie to you about how well you did. They are not biased, they don’t judge you, and they will not share themselves with others without your permission.
Serious golfers rarely ask each other, “What did you shoot?” Instead they ask, “How did you play?” Real golfers are much more interested in the second question, because scores can be deceiving.
So here we are at the beginning of a new year, which is a great time to start keeping stats on yourself. And while I’m happy for you to include golf stats, I’m much more interested in something a little deeper. Good.
Just as I was challenged by a friend to keep stats when I played golf, I’m now challenging you to keep stats for your “good.” It is one of the best ways I know of to do good better.
The famous person who had his own way of doing this, and who turned it into a lifetime habit, was the great American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin.
If you want to hear the full story on Dr. Franklin and “good,” you’ll want to come to Do Good Talks in Scottsdale, Arizona, this coming May 9 and 10.
For now, though, here was his basic practice. He would use a notebook, open it, and at the top of the left-page he would write this question: What good can I do today?
On the facing page he would write; What good did I do today?
The answers to his question on the left side of the book, written each morning, were to stimulate his thinking about the possibilities. He might know he had a particular meeting and think about that. Or he might think about an invention he was working on.
He wasn’t usually planning some particular act of good, he was planting the seeds for acts of good.
The right-hand page
At the end of the day, Dr. Franklin would take up his book, think back on the day, and enter any good that he did on the right-hand page. This was not an exercise in pride, it was an exercise in humility and progress.
At least I believe he saw it that way, because in my experience those were my results. That was true whether I was keeping stats on golf or good.
Neither of those can be perfected, and in both areas reflection often reveals missed opportunities.
But while the left-hand page records hopes, the right-hand page tells the tale.
When I played golf seriously, I would think ahead before a round and plan every hole to some degree. Thinking ahead like that helped me set a standard for myself. Would the stats show that I met those expectations, or even exceeded them? Once in a while, yes.
The same is true for your “Do Good Today” book.
And when the right-hand page has three or four or five acts of doing good, you will still be humbled by the opportunities you missed. But you will sleep well.
As you make progress
When I first started planning my golf rounds, I had three areas I’d predict. (The left-hand page.) I would hit a specific number of fairways (e.g. 10 out of 14), a specific number of greens (e.g. 12 out of 18), and I’d have a specific number of putts (e.g. 28).
I didn’t predict bunker shots or penalty strokes, but I still kept them as stats. That’s because I never planned to hit a poor shot, but sometimes I did.
You should do the same with good. Start with being kind, for instance. Just keep track of that one thing for a while. On the left write down how you will be kind that day, and on the right record how you were kind. If you were unkind, write that down as well.
As you get better at being kind, add patience and keep track of that. There are countless categories of good, I suppose, but stick with the broad areas first. Those will help you find specific places where you might still do more good.
My challenge: keep stats for one month on your good. It’s a great way to do more good.
Do good — and keep track of it — it’s in you!
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