I believe the title of this post to be a myth.
In my business (financial services) I’m deluged with books, websites, videos, training programs, motivational quotes and memes, superstar mentor offers, mastermind groups, activity tracking spreadsheets, apps to kick my ass out of bed, and on and on. The drive for maximum this and killer that and dominant this has spread out over all walks of life. If you’re not becoming steadily more awesome every day then you’re an abject failure.
Now I did consider for a moment that perhaps my revulsion toward these pushes to achieve my ultimate wonderfulness was simply in defense of, and a rationalization for, my contented mediocrity. But I realized that the most successful peak performance schemes occur in areas that are easily measured.
If I’m an asset manager, the dollar amount of assets I manage reveals my superiority. If I sell insurance products, my gross sales are my badge. If I’m an investment banker the size of the deals is my yardstick. If I’m an athlete there are a plethora of statistics and measurements. But how do you measure simply becoming a better person, a better partner, a better citizen? I’m very interested in that pursuit but have yet to find relevant metrics. Is it:
- Popularity? We have an excess of evidence that popularity is irrelevant and, in fact, almost a counter-indicator of one’s quality as a human being.
- Wealth? Ditto.
- Power? Yet another counter-indicator.
How do we measure what is genuinely important? Is it even measurable? If so, how? If not, how can we at least detect it to aspire to it and assess our progress?
I welcome your suggestions.
Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!