Measuring

Chapter 307

Success each day should be judged by the seeds sown, not the harvest reaped." ~ John C. Maxwell

First of all measure the right thing. We fail to do this so often in life. My dad and I are sitting here strategizing about how to keep the birds from nesting on the side porch, and ruining the wood out there. A porch that no one has even sat on in years. A very expensive porch. A porch that wasn’t thought out very well, and that failure came from measuring the wrong thing. The porch is a result of measuring what other people were building and valuing, not what would actually be a beautiful addition to this house and well used by the these people who live here. So first of all measure the right thing.

Second of all, many things can only be measured properly by the energy, possibilities, potentials, capacities, hope, opportunities and prospects that are present in the beginning of the work, not the results at the end. When you measure at the front end, you are measuring properly for most things, because this is where things are most set and stable and ... well measuarable. Once set into motion, many factors and reactions and results are outside of your control, or have unintended consequences, or unexpected reactions. Measuring along the way, and in the middle, and at the end require different metrics and processes and give a different kind of answers.

Third, change your focus. Change your focus to success. Success is measuring on the front end. Results focus obsessions like we have in the modern world, where the ends is all anyone thinks about, are weak and shortsighted. You neither measured nor enjoyed all the processes, plans, collaborating, teamwork, or living along the way.