It is unusual how when you insist on measuring something, you often end up measuring what actually doesn’t matter. Often the thing you end up measuring is a distant relative of something meaningful.
Modern medicine is pretty incredible. We can stick a tube down your air pipe and artificially ventilate you, we can keep your heart pumping artificially to keep the blood flowing, we can introduce an IV line and keep you hydrated by giving you fluids, we can feed you with a tube into your stomach (a PEG feed) and we can catheterise you to make sure you’re peeing properly.
By all measurable metrics we can keep you “alive”. But by doing all of this are we really keeping the patient “alive” in any meaningful way?
I have a feeling that we often end up measuring things due to the mere fact that they are easy to measure. The things which actually matter are usually difficult or impossible to measure:
- “Likes”, “Follows” and “Shares” instead of measuring impact and engagement.
- Money instead of measuring purpose and fulfillment.
- Short-term growth instead of “durability”.
So the question becomes; “Are you measuring your life in a meaningful way?”, or are you measuring out of convenience. Maybe it’s time to buckle down and figure out what actually matters.
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