Don’t Forget Qualifiable

balance
Photo by Bekir Dönmez / Unsplash

I’m tired of everybody trying to quantify everything all the time.

To me, Quality beats Quantity every single time, it’s actually sort of a personal mantra.

Some people have a better grasp of this concept than others. You’d be amazed at just how much you can you can benefit from qualifying something versus quantifying it. You’d be equally amazed at just how much our society judges a situation via a quantifying process. Think of the 3 following situations:

‘Little Suzy is so much smarter than little Eric because she scored 86% on her Math test and he only got 64%.’

‘I only make $30,000 a year while that guy makes $120,000 he must be the happiest guy on earth.’

‘Josh has been to the gym 5 times this week, lost 50 lbs in the last year and every time I start i can only make it once, I lose 5 lbs then put on 10 lbs more’

Little Suzy may in fact love math, but little Eric beats her average in Science, Art, Physical Education and English. We are quick to judge a situation based on our preconceived notions, especially when only given one factor of comparison.

How often do you talk yourself down, “I can’t do that because so and so is so much better at it than me.It's really hard not to compare ourselves to others...

You should take a minute (right now even) and think about your strengths. What do you do better than most people? How can you utilize those traits to help you become better at Math than little Suzy?

It’s possible.

You may only make $30,000 a year, and your boss makes $120,000 a year. She may be better at her job than you would be, but that doesn’t define you as a bad worker or poor employee. It doesn’t define your worth.

Your boss can’t possibly make that cup of coffee, make that sale or show a client where they can find that product. Maybe you have other skills better suited to a different job that your boss doesn’t even have.

Perhaps $120,000 is merely the result of 20 years of work for the same company and that’s the peak of her career earnings. You could change jobs today, work for 20 years and make $150,000 a year if you put your mind to it. Sometimes you need to take things out of context and rebuild them in your image.

If someone else is quantifying their nutrition and training plan, maybe you need to qualify yours. Did you master the squat today? Improve your stroke this week? Did you find a new job? Did you write a beautiful short story? There are numerous ways to gauge progress without numbers and sometimes those ways are the best for long-term success.

Putting a positive spin on any process of change, can put a positive spin on your mind-set. These leads to a snowball type effect. If quantifying your education, job, fitness, nutrition, intelligence isn’t working, try qualifying it. You’ll probably have more success.

I’d rather be a great person, with good connections, practical knowledge, or good at many things than obsessed about my grade point average in a single class.

I’d rather be good at what I do, than make 10 million dollars a year doing something insignificant.

I’d rather squat 185 lbs with impeccable form than squat 300 lbs with terrible squat technique.

Food for thought…

Darren Beattie

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