Octopus legs and personal growth

Sunday Blog 221 - 8th Feb 2026

It’s definitely too early to be making such heady claims, but I think my smart watch has created the personality revolution that I hoped I was paying for. Sure, I may have jabbed inexpertly at the preferences and set my goals a little low. It tells me every day that I’ve closed my activity rings, often by 8.30am.

My rings. All closed again.

But there’s a special magic to me of having a dashboard of my lifestyle. What I eat and how much I move is now on a dial. I take a photo of whatever I’m eating, and before you can say algorithm, it’s analysed it with frightening accuracy down to the last micronutrient. My display shows calories in and out, like seeing how much petrol or windscreen wiper fluid I have left.

Sadly, this dashboard is only reflecting my physical behaviours. There are large swathes of self-sabotaging behaviours which are harder to measure, perhaps. Like trying to pack an octopus into a boat, no sooner do you get eighth recalcitrant leg into the boat when the first and second flop back out in rebellion.

Right now, my “over-doing” it legs are flailing around and paying as much heed as a dog at the beach pays to their owner. Lulled by the quietness of January, I’ve gone back to my compulsive “yeses” with the usual result of a diary that hypnotises me with its complexity. But I comfort myself with the impending Chinese New Year. I’ve got another chance to get all eight legs into the boat, if you will.