Reading Notes
3-5 Minute Read | Laptop or Tablet Recommended
Topics and Themes
Measuring progress backwards; Celebrating small wins; Shifting our mindsets in a productivity-obsessed economy.
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The next three paragraphs have something in common. Can you spot it? It’s easy. I promise:
Two months ago, I had no idea how to finish a blog post without expending a great deal of energy. Now, I have pinned down a lighter and easier process. I went from spending up to 7 hours on a single blog post to just 1-3 hours. That wasn’t the case two months ago.
Three months ago, I also didn’t have a reliable car. My car at that time had no AC, old tires, and engine issues. Now, I have a new car that I can drive anywhere in comfort and style. It's much more reliable, and quite a bit safer. That’s a lot better than where I was more than three months ago.
Six months ago, I hadn’t yet written a note that I liked for a major film scoring project. I was still grappling with the direction I was going to take. Today, I can look back and see all the tiny advancements I made until I finished it. I delivered the score, the director was pleased, and I felt fantastic. That wasn't the case more than six months ago.
Did you spot the common theme? In each of these examples, I measured progress backwards.
Measuring progress backwards means comparing ourselves to where we started. From that vantage point, we often (and only) see remarkable progress. By only seeing progress, we tend to build momentum. To me, that's super magical.
In The Gap And The Gain by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan, they talk extensively about measuring progress backwards. I nabbed the audiobook version to hear Dan Sullivan get interviewed by Ben Hardy in between chapters. In one interview, Dan said,
If there’s only one thing that you do as an entrepreneur, always measure your progress backwards.
Why does he recommend that?
Possibly because measuring progress backwards gives us a ton of momentum. It also helps us break the habit of looking at the future as a distant place we are so far away from.
I can’t think of a worse way to live my life than to only see how far I've got to go before I reach a goal. That’s similar to when I allowed an ideal to drive me. Comparing myself to that ideal made me miserable. The cliché “Comparison is a thief of joy” is a cliché for a reason. Whenever I compared myself to that ideal, I felt depressed, annoyed, and aggravated that I hadn't accomplished more with my life.
Thankfully, measuring progress backwards guards against using an ideal as motivation. Since I only compare myself from where I started, I always feel good. I always feel like I’m progressing. I always have momentum. I like that feeling! It’s the wind at my back.
When I started that film score, I only focused on my wins. If I wrote a cue that worked for a scene, I celebrated that win. I would simply say, “Wow, I didn’t have that written this morning!” It felt great every single time I saw progress.
Truly, measuring progress backwards means I only compare myself to where I started. I count and celebrate every win, and it feels good. That's a tonic we all could have more of, especially in the hyper productivity-obsessed work environments so many of us feel squelched by, nowadays.