The Gap and The Gain

As he did in WHO NOT HOW, Dan Sullivan shares another one of his simple yet profound teachings that until now have been known only to his Strategic Coach clients: unsuccessful people focus on The Gap, but successful people focus on The Gain.Most people, especially highly ambitious people, are unhappy because of what they measure themselves against. We all have an ideal, which is like a moving target always out of reach. When we measure ourselves against our ideal, we're in The Gap. However, when we measure ourselves against our previous selves--the person we were when we set our goals and ideals--we will be in The Gain. In The Gain we can more clearly see the progress we've made, and therefore will experience the happiness, confidence, and satisfaction that come from achieving--positive, powerful emotions that will motivate us to pursue new goals and ultimately become increasingly successful.Your future growth and progress are now based in your understanding about the difference between the two ways in which you can measure yourself: against the ideal, which puts you in what I call The Gap, and against your starting point, which puts you in The Gain, appreciating all that you've accomplished.When you're in The Gap, you feel as though you haven't accomplished anything at all. This is because even though you've moved forward, the ideal remains distant from you. The ideal is a moving target. It might even get bigger, leaving you worse off than where you started if you measure against it. You've also used up time and energy getting to where you are, so if you don't measure the progress, you'll feel like you've wasted that time and energy and have fallen even further behind.But if you turn around and measure your progress against where you started, then you're in The Gain, and you'll experience a sense of having moved forward, of having achieved something, and you'll be motivated to continue on to your next stage of growth.--Dan Sullivan