“This book could have been a tweet.”

This week I read the funniest book review I have ever read. Yes, it was on Goodreads, and we’ve already established that I don’t really love the reviews on Goodreads. I am usually annoyed by them and always take them with a grain of salt.

Here’s what happened. I was listening to a motivational talk from a social media marketing expert (I know, sounds riveting, lol). She mentioned the book ​The Gap and the Gain​ and suddenly the comments in the chat blew up. “Love that book!” “Read it, so great!” Etc.

As I do when I hear the name of a new book, I immediately went to Goodreads to skim the description and potentially put it on my “want to read” list. The first review that popped up said something to the effect of “I just finished this book. I’m so angry. It could have been a tweet.” I chuckled, and refocused my attention on the talk.

Full disclosure: I haven’t read the book or even paged through it. And there were plenty of glowing positive reviews as well. So I can’t comment on whether the book is worth a read or not, and my view is always “what works for one person might not work for someone else.” If you have read The Gap and the Gain and have a perspective one way or the other, please share!

Based on what I know, though, I have to agree with the reviewer, the message was good – and pretty simple.

Here’s the premise. Good practice is to set concrete goals and work towards them. All too often, however, when we measure ourselves against our goals and we have fallen short, we settle in the “gap.” We focus on what we haven’t achieved rather than what we have. And as you might have guessed, what we have achieved is the “gain.” If I was sketching the idea in my notebook, it would look something like this:

Pretty simple, right? So here’s a personal example:

As you all know, I launched my business almost a year ago. I set goals for an expected number of clients and email subscribers. And I have not met those goals. The gap is fairly large. But so is the gain. Last year when I started, I didn’t have a ​website​, I didn’t have a “​compass​,” I didn’t have an email list or an Instagram account. I had half as many LinkedIn followers. There’s more, but you get the idea.

I now have all of these things – and I have people who are reading this today who I didn’t know when I started (and people who I still don’t know personally)!

So while the gap is a reality, so is the gain. By focusing on the gain, I can stay motivated and keep working on the gap–figuring out what I need to do differently to keep narrowing it.

What about you? Is your tendency to live in the gap or in the gain?