We all grade ourselves by different measures:
- For some people, it’s as simple as how much money they make. When their net worth is going up, they know they’re doing well.
- For others, it’s how much money they give.
- For some people, it’s how many people’s lives they can influence for the better.
- For others, it’s how deeply they can influence just a few people’s lives.
– from pg 30 of “Anything You Want” by Derek Silvers, Founder of CD Baby
I’d never thought of it that way before. Maybe that’s why some of us are in a flux of constantly doing things, and yet constantly feeling like we haven’t accomplished much in life. When we raise our grades in one measure, we find ourselves looking at the other measures and going “well, but I haven’t done X.”
Maybe that’s why some of us struggle with our parents. We’d write home happily about the lives we’d touched in the community, only to be given the failing grade by them because we weren’t already making the big fat paycheck they’d hoped their college educated child would be making.
So how do you grade yourself? Are you measuring your success by your standards, or someone else’s?
The Learning Log is a reflection of the lessons I pick up while reading my books. I hope the points picked out will inspire you as much as they’ve impacted me.
Shuling Yong 