The sunshine and warmer weather motivated me to do some cleaning, so I opened a couple windows and vacuumed the bedrooms.  When I was done, I stood back to admire my work.  No matter what your opinion of carpet is, you have to admit, there is nothing more satisfying than fresh vacuum lines.  I tiptoed across the floor careful not to mess up my work and unplugged the vacuum.  As I wound up the cord, I noticed the dirt canister was full.  It wasn’t a big deal except that it was empty when I started a few minutes before.  Emptying the canister into the trash, I judged myself for all the ways I don’t measure up as a housekeeper and I was reminded me of a quote from Dan Sullivan:

“Your future growth and progress are now based in your understanding about the difference between the two ways in which you can measure yourself; against an ideal, which puts you in what I call 'the gap,' and against your starting point, which puts you in 'the gain,' appreciating all that you've accomplished. Whenever you're in the gap about something or someone, all you can see is where you're not measuring up, you only see your flaws and don't see your gains and your growth.” The Gap And The Gain, Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan

Hardy and Sullivan definitely didn’t have vacuuming in mind when they wrote these words, but they inspired a spring cleaning of my mind. 

As a ‘hardy’ New Englander, I  appreciate the gains in daylight from the shortest day of the year, rejoicing in each extra minute as winter comes to an end, yet I live much of the rest of my life in the gap. Housekeeping is one of the more trivial examples, but parenting, finances, personal fitness and performance at work are all places where gap thinking is common and I’m guilty of them all. 

Between now and May, we’ll gain approximately 3 minutes of daylight each day.  I’m going to use those minutes as a prompt to live my life appreciating the gains, measuring only my progress from where I started.