The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success

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What does “the gap and the gain” mean? What’s the difference between these two ways of measuring progress and success? This wording suggested that happiness is something external to ourselves, something you have to chase after. And that’s how most people see it to this day. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, he decreed that all Americans have the right to “the pursuit of happiness.” An unhealthy "need" or attachment to anything outside of oneself is the foundation of the GAP. You are attempting to free yourself FROM something, and until you succeed, happiness will elude you. When you're in the GAP, you're attempting to get "there," while avoiding "here," without ever getting there. As the success criteria are always changing, it is hard to feel successful while using external reference points.

Today, I’d like to dive further into the concept of “the gap and the gain” and how it applies to you as a manager. More than anything, it’s a powerful shift in perspective that I promise will make all the difference for you when it comes to reaching your goals and getting massive results. Glass Half-Empty vs. Glass Half-Full The gap is a state of anxiety, frustration, and inadequacy. The gain is a state of gratitude, confidence, and accomplishment Next time a new job or other opportunity comes your way, ask yourself: Does this meet the requirements on my list? If the answer is no, then the opportunity isn’t for you, no matter how prestigious it may be. How you see your life shapes how you live. In fact, these platforms are built to make you feel like your life doesn’t measure up. It’s their job to put you in the GAP – to make you feel like your life doesn’t measure up to the ideal. The book made me want to be a better human (spouse, sibling, friend, coworker). It made me rethink the way I treat myself and others, and how I view achievement and happiness. I thought I was already quite good at being mindful and generally a happy human, but there’s definitely lots of room for improvement!For example, one study worked with a group of 84 women who cleaned hotel rooms for a living. Half of the group was told that their cleaning activities were good exercise which could improve their health. The other half – the control group – wasn’t told anything at all. When you're in the GAP, you act victimized and ask yourself, "Why did this happen?" You have control over the significance of your past when you're in the GAIN. You treasure your past and use it to define what you desire and value. We take our life for granted. If you imagine the absence of the most important thing in your life, you can genuinely start to appreciate what you have. Let’s say your delivery speed is quite unpredictable, and you’ve set a goal to improve it. Your goal is to deliver any type of work in less than 5 days, 85% of the time. And let’s say that 2 months later, the 85th percentile on your Cycle Time Scatterplot still points to 12 days.

The irony is, we actually make way more progress when we take an approach that’s focused on gratitude and positivity. Being a member of GAIN allows you to use every dip as a springboard toward reaching a higher peak in the future. Being in the moment gives you the ability to learn from every situation and get better, not worse. Being in the gain means you measure yourself against what you were before. You measure your own progress. You don’t compare yourself against something external. Every experience you got is viewed as a gain. This allows you to focus on what you have actually done. And When you see your gains, it allows you to create more gains in the future.He exposed the GAP as a toxic mindset that stopped people from being happy and appreciating their lives,” the authors write. “He knew that until people got out of the GAP, they’d never be as happy or successful as they could be.”