So at least once in your life, you have heard something like “On a scale from 1 to 10, how do you feel about…” Or got an electronic survey that goes on a scale from less likely to most likely, 5 bubble selection. I have and there plenty of them.

But recently I was listening to a podcast that talked about using a scale as a tool to improve your business, at home, and at life. The podcast gave an example about asking individual feedback for some activity or service provided, on a scale of 1 to 10 how was the service received. And that was just fine, there is data to compare the service with previous results. But the following follow up question is, in my opinion,  the key that I think will provide more valuable information.

Regardless of the value (2,4,7 or 9) the question that follows will go something like this “What will make the service a” Value+(1 or 2) “?”

Example: Someone rate your cooking an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, then I will ask what will make it a 9 or 10?

Normally there will be a pause and then, some feedback constructive or not will be provided with most likely details on areas for improvement. Hence better information than just a value from which you might not be able to do much about it.

This relates to running in the following – after a training run (Especially a key training run) or an event, rate your performance on a scale from 1 to 10. Some training sessions are going to be great and some are not, but go that extra step by thinking about what it will make it a Value+1 or 00+2. Think about those things you had control of that you could adjust or do for next time.

Similarly for controlling your glucose levels/sugars at the end of the day or after an activity or few hours after a meal, rate the sugars reading performance on a scale of 1 to 10. Did it go well? Did you make a good decision? Are you feeling well? and so on. Then asked yourself how can I make it Value+1 or 2 better? And hone in those elements of the answers you can control best. Is it sleep? rest? type of food?, level of activity? dose? you get the point. Take note and adjust.

Again you can do this at night as well, on a scale from 1 to 10 how did the day go? What could make it better one or two points? The thing here is not necessarily getting to a 10 or perfection. What are we looking here is for incremental improvement, those things that can be attainable and activities we can control. If you do many of those minor adjustments, what you will find out is that those minor adjustments will compound and produce larger benefits for improving performance and life.