How do you feel when you have made clear, visible and measurable progress on something?
Measuring ourselves against our ideal future is tiring as we never actually get there. To measure progress we must look back to where we started from and what our original goals were. Real progress is about looking at how far you have come and how much you have achieved.
Think about it. Look back to a time in your life when you had set an aspiration or a goal.
Pick a goal that you had in the past that you have now achieved. Think back to the time that you set that goal. In the moment you set that goal, what would you have given to achieve it? Now that you have achieved it, did you rest on your laurels and stop, or did you set a bigger, better goal?
Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach refers to this concept as the Gap and the Gain.
If we continually live comparing ourselves to our ideal future we can fall into the Gap.
The Gap is not a nice place. The Gap creates discontentment. The Gap creates unhappiness. The Gap is demotivating. Living in the Gap does not allow us to realise our true potential and become our best selves.
Having a Gap is good because that is what keeps us growing.
We need to live in the Gain.
Looking at where we started and seeing the Gain motivates and inspires us. Looking at where we have come from and the Gains we have made gives us momentum and builds morale. The Gain shows us what is possible. The Gain inspires us and gives us confidence. The Gain is something to celebrate. The Gain is something to be grateful for.
In a world where completions are hard, we need to celebrate the wins on the things that we achieved and closed out. In a life where we are striving to be better, we are reaching for a horizon that will always move just beyond our grasp as we re-adjust our goals and aspirations. We will never reach our destination as the destination changes in tandem with our progression.
As we succeed. As we are successful. We change our goals and our horizon moves ahead of us. Like a boat setting out on the ocean, we will never reach our horizon until we reach dry land. Live outside of the Gap, celebrate and acknowledge the Gain.
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