# Chapter 138

Which end are you measuring? Most of us are measuring the wrong end. Wait, what are the ends? The ends are the start, the beginning - the ideal, the perfect planet alignment of performance. It could look like this:

Start ————————————————————————————————————— Ideal

And the subject could be your job, your hobby, your passion, your children, your marriage, your second/third language, your spiritual walk, your bucket list, or whatever. Most things in life have a start and an ideal end. Two important things here, few of us ever hit that ideal end, and the ideal end is usually arbitrary - someone decides what that ideal is or isn’t or should be. This changes everything, because if you are measuring at the wrong end that someone randomly decided was the ideal, then you are doomed. Yeah I am that little kid again at his first piano recital and the ideal is Mozart???? Sure there is gonna be a big gap, and a lot of unhappiness and discontentment because we are definitely measuring the wrong end. Yet we are definitely aiming toward the right end.

The ideal gives us a direction, a goal, motivation, inspiration, whatever, but it is not what we measure when we are measuring progress, growth, or productivity. If we are measuring, then you only measure one direction - from the start to wherever you are right now. This is a measurement you can bank on. And see how far you have come, and see all the progress you have made, see all the gains that have been garnered and gathered. Sure keep moving. The ideal is still there, and you can make more progress, but don’t measure that direction.

(These ideas spawn from Ben Hardy’s book the Gap and the Gain)