Tag: measure

Life is amazing, yet we’re still unhappy

Posted on by philipdodson

For many of us life is amazing, even compared to say 100 years ago, a relatively minuscule amount of time given the total human existence. Better healthcare, better housing, better technology, better food, better most things.

Even in poorer places in the world by comparison to 100 years ago, they are better off.

However, in the more affluent, wealthier countries and certainly amongst the most privileged and those who seem to have everything, there are huge amounts of discontentment.

Why? because we are using the wrong metrics. Better technology is a wrong metric, better houses is a wrong metric, more money is a wrong metric, better cars is a wrong metric. Once we adjust our metrics from superficial to more meaningful then we can better measure our contentment.

Life today has us chasing the wrong goals as we are taught the wrong metrics.

If we instead measured quality time with our loved ones, time spent with friends, time enjoying nature, and so on. If we measured the things that will count at the end of our journeys while we are still on them, then we will have a more deep, joyful and contentment journey.

Don’t measure stuff, instead measure purpose, people, connections, love, kindness, empathy, and the things that match our true values, not the one we are hoodwinked into using in order to keep us trapped in a discontentment spiral seeking better fucking everything in order to feel worthwhile.

Life is much happier with the right metrics.

How we measure up with Mo Farah

Posted on by philipdodson

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Before you decide if you have succeeded or not, perhaps look at how you are measuring yourself or who you are measuring yourself with?

What constitutes a success or a failure?

If you are comparing yourself to others, then it is likely to always end in you thinking you have failed, strangely all the others will think the same if they are comparing themselves to you.

Comparison with others is a wrong measurement.

The measure could simply be what success looks like to you, after all, what else matters?

If you think running 500m down the road is a success, as you don’t normally do any running at all, then it will spur you on to run another 500m the next time, and perhaps if you continue to see it as a success, you’ll maybe run 700m and then more over time. Cut yourself slack, you’re not a trained Olympic athlete, well not yet.

If on the other hand you see it as a failure, because you have used other people’s measures of success or you have compared yourself to someone else, and guess what you won’t pick someone who’s not a runner to compare to, we never do, you’ll have picked a friend or neighbour who runs like Mo Farah, then you will not feel inspired to run the next day.

It is all about how we choose to speak to ourselves and what we use as a measure.

It is realising that the only success is the success that counts for you and to remember we all start from a position of worthiness, that is not altered by what we achieve or don’t.