The Gap and the Gain

Three of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of The Gap and the Gain pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.

1. The GAP is measuring yourself against your idealized future or an unreachable standard; the GAIN is measuring yourself against your own former self and how far you have actually come. The same day of progress feels like failure in the GAP and like a win in the GAIN.
2. The horizon is a metaphor for the ideal: no matter how far you walk, it moves the same distance ahead. Chasing the ideal as if it were an achievable destination guarantees you will always feel behind.
3. Ideals are useful as a direction, not as a measuring stick. Use the ideal like a compass to point where you're headed, but only measure progress backward against your starting point.

The other 4 — and the full 10-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 8 chapters

The whole summary runs about 10 minutes, read or listened to.

1. The Difference Between Winning and Losing
2. The Horizon: Why the Ideal Always Escapes
3. Happiness Is the Way, Not a Destination
4. Measure Against Yourself, Not Others
5. Turn Every Experience Into a Gain
6. The Gain Multiplies Your Relationships and Confidence
7. The Practice: Three Wins and Daily Measurement
8. Living in the Gain for Good