Nick and Maddie’s PHP Findings
Maddie’s Findings-
With regards to interviewing and assessing my partner’s data for the PHP I learned a lot about how we choose to identify our own needs for improvement, often times working backwards from what we believe is a symptom of an underlying self identified flaw. For example, on the surface Nick simply wanted to improve his stamina so he could enjoy more physical activities with his friends, but after examining his habits and daily routine he determined that the best way for him to improve his energy would be to regularize his sleep schedule. By creating a journey map for my partner, I learned not only about his motivations and assumed relationships of cause and effect between different aspects of his personal well-being, but also my own.
Similarly, when collecting and analyzing data for both of our goals I learned that these assumed relationships might not always hold true. Over my period of intervention I actually did not find that increased cardio helped me fall asleep earlier. This is not to say that the exercise was invaluable, but rather that the root of my sleep problem my lie elsewhere. This also provided me with a great starting point for my new personal health goal, for which I will try and examine the immediate 30 minutes before and after sleep, and how they affect each other, the quality of my sleep, and my energy level throughout the day.
Nick’s Findings –
There were a couple things I took away from having to do this first PHP.
- I know David said it over and over but it really was hard to gather quantifiable data for my partner, Maddie. Her goal was to be able to run a 5K at a 9 minute mile pace. While I thought it would be easy at first, I realized that the only abundantly clear data sources were sleep times and mile pace during working out. When it came to other factors, such as her ability to focus, stress, etc. that were all factoring into her health goal, they were not as easy to keep track of and note progress.
- When looking at her amount of sleep the night before v. time working out during the day (for each day we would look at the correlation between these two things), there was no clear trend. Typically, one would assume that if you slept more the night before, you’d be more rested and could work out for longer during the day. This wasn’t the case for Maddie – the data was all over the place.
- Although this initial PHP was a little bit tricky and ultimately frustrating at times, it provided me with a new way of looking at health goals, a new way of considering all factors playing into how one acts, and gave me a new health goal of taking times to relax, refocus, reflect on the day so far, pray, etc. during the day!
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