One year ago today I decided to start a log of my bike rides.  I can't remember why, but after years of "just riding" I sat down and created a little spreadsheet, and have since made one row entries for each ride; the route, the miles, and the time (if known).  This is pretty cool, because now I know that in the past year I did 210 rides, for a total of 6,608 miles, an average of 31 miles per ride, or 127 miles per week.  Wow, that is so cool!

Without having previous years' metrics to compare I can't be sure, but I have to believe I have ridden more often, and further, as a result of keeping this log.  There were days when I really didn't feel like riding - maybe it was cold, or I was busy, or there was a ready procrastination handy - but I did it anyway to keep up the pace.  Watching that little plot creeping upward was an ever-present inspiration.

I believe this is an excellent example of the metric magic.  For me, measuring works.  Your mileage may vary :)