Hey friends,
After having “a new life chapter,” I have wanted to go straight into my ideal week, but obviously, it is easier said than done. There have been unexpected tasks coming up, and things aren’t stable as of yet. And... unsurprisingly, I can occasionally be slightly disappointed seeing no progress.
... until I came across the title of this book: The Gap and The Gain.
Just a quick interruption here: I haven’t read the full book, and I do not want to make a long-ass summary of it.
Essentially what the book is saying is that whenever we aren’t where we want to be, we tend to measure the gap, that is the gap between ourselves and the goal, rather than the gain, that is the gain that we have achieved over time until the moment.
When we measure the gap, especially after efforts and time given, we will most likely feel demotivated and disappointed seeing the gap until we reach our goals.
Instead, we should be measuring the gain, i.e, how far we have come as we have been working, towards the goals.
In some ways, it’s all about the referencing points: do we measure our current states against our ideal outcome state, or against our original state where we started from.
Moreover, although we tend to not notice it, they compound: both the gap and the gain. Being in the gap creates a negative compound effect in life: we would usually feel inadequate, annoyed, and disappointed. But being in the gain, meanwhile, can create a positive compound effect in our lives: appreciating our work and acknowledging our progress mainly.
Personally, I am trying to focus more on the gain: I have pretty much settled down at this new place; my weekly schedule is being worked on, it’s in progress, and I am doing pretty nice progress since I have arrived here. I intend to go towards the goal, of course, while being aware of and appreciating my good work and progress, haha.
Personal Life
I am still having a hard time coming up with ideas for this newsletter, ugh. For every issue, I put in a certain amount of effort, and I feel content and happy as long as at least one person enjoys it. But at times, I’d feel like this whole thing is pretty much pointless when too few people read them or my close mates don’t bother reading my issues haha. I still am not good enough to get their attention, so I will be trying consistently to achieve it, hahaha.
I am doing a pretty nice job here I guess, although I have to admit, life abroad living alone is genuinely hard and is harder than expected.
I just received my school timetable, so I am trying to get a weekly schedule for myself really soon, and for that, I am trying to use Google Calendar in a more effective way.
Meanwhile, I am also trying to build systems for different aspects of my life, and for that, I’ll be using Notion, and hopefully, they will turn out to be fairly nice in a couple of weeks.
Thanks so much for reading. I hope you could focus more on the Gain as well, and feel better with yourself in the future.
Have a nice week ahead.
Kaung. x
ahem..I DO read your issues every week, just so you know.