# Chapter 137

Measuring the gain is the right way. The gain is the distance from where you STARTED to where you are now. The gap is the distance from the ideal to where you are now. Looking at two opposite ends of the same gig. Makes a really big deal in how you see the world and how you see you. This will light up the possibilities in all areas for you if you can see the gain rather than the gap. Most of us struggle with the gap multiple times every day. It is how most humans seem to be wired. Seeing the gain changes everything. It allows you to be so grateful and appreciative and humble, that new possibilities spring up all over the place. It’s like you can see differently. And you really are I guess, you are seeing how far you have come and that will give you confidence to go even further in whatever you are pursuing, rather than fixating on how much further there is yet to go toward some form of an ideal that you have stuck in your brain.

Measuring the gain is always a win. Because you have made way more progress than it feels like you have on any given day. Most gains occur so incrementally that you can’t really see them or measure them when they are happening. This is so extra true when you are in intense language study. When we studying Russian Language at Rostov State University in southern Russia many years ago, it seemed that we were making no progress whatsoever. This is primarily our daily experience because we were looking ahead toward an ideal goal, rather than looking backwards, to our starting point, where frankly the dogs lying in the street understood more Russian than did we.

We were looking the wrong way. Turn around and see how far you have come, and then you can move forward with confidence.