A Life Changing & Easy Mindset Shift. The Gap & The Gain.

I want to share some valuable insights with you from a great book I’ve just read, The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan & Dr Benjamin Hardy.

We’ll be reading it in GROW – my personal growth/book club in June.

There really is magic in the key concept they share - how a simple mindset shift in the way we tend to think about, and measure achievement & progress, can transform our lives.

Let me explain…

Most of us, me included, are often a bit hard on ourselves when it comes to evaluating the progress we make against our dreams and goals. Our achievements.

In particular, ambitious people often feel they’re ‘not enough’… not achieving at the rate they feel they should be… and discontent, pressured or unhappy as a result.

But the authors point out that we can easily turn that around – with a simple strategy for staying positive, happy and motivated – and that the key reason for feeling that way is simple.

It’s because of the way we’ve learned to measure our achievements by focussing on what we haven’t yet achieved (The Gap) – rather than on how far we’ve come (The Gain).

And while the book focusses on high achievers, there really is something universal in it for everyone.

Much of what we’ve learned in life leads us to be chasing new things that are out ahead of us. Like moving targets, they often seem out of reach. When we measure ourselves against that ideal we’re chasing, we’re in ‘The Gap.’

However, when we make a simple adjustment to measure ourselves against our previous selves and how far we’ve progressed - the person we were when we set our goals and ideals - we focus on ‘The Gain’.

And focussing on ‘The Gain’ leads us to clearly see the progress we’ve made. What we’ve achieved. How far we’ve come. Our wins. Our growth. The positive sides of achievement, that naturally bring confidence, inspiration, satisfaction - and joy!

Positive, powerful emotions that motivate us to keep pursuing and achieving our goals – feeling good about ourselves along the way.

It’s a subtle shift in approach that I’m now finding brings a massive shift in mindset and daily good feels!

The Gap and The Gain concept was developed by legendary entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan, and is based on his work with tens of thousands of successful entrepreneurs.

Over years of coaching, Dan found that clients usually focussed heavily on what they hadn’t achieved. What ‘The Gap’ was between where they were and where they wanted to be.

"Unsurprisingly, he found it was creating an unnecessary and heavy negative compound effect on people."

That led him to coach clients periodically to take stock of all that they had accomplished - both personally and professionally – and guess what he found?

People were almost always shocked at how much they had achieved – and felt great reflecting on it. 

Without him leading them to focus on ‘The Gain’, they couldn’t appreciate their progress, because no matter how much they were getting done, they were usually measuring themselves against their ideals or goals. Constantly looking at the ‘The Gap’ - what they hadn’t yet done – which had them feeling down on themselves.

I loved learning how focussing on ‘The Gain’ means measuring your progress against where you started. Not comparing yourself to others or something external. And how measuring your current self vs. your former self has enormous psychological benefits.

It’s really the key to this deceptively simple yet multi-layered concept that will have you feeling good, feeling grateful, and feeling like you’re making progress even when times are tough.

If you're finding that happiness eludes you no matter how much you strive, then learning this easy mindset shift could set you on a life-changing path to greater fulfilment and success.

The book is the focus of my podcast this week. You can listen to the episode here...

It’s a great book and I can’t wait to read it, discuss it in GROW and most importantly, to help each other implement what we learn. 

If you want to find out more or join us for June, go here...  

If you'd like to purchase the book you can find it here...

Have a wonderful time focussing on The Gain... and Dream Big! 

Love,

Dream Life Founder & Stationery Lover