Measurements

I'm sorry about the double-post but I just thought of this idea as I was writing the other post and I thought that it should be its own post.

In today's day and age, we use measurements everyday. We measure how much TV we watch, how fast our computers are, and how smart we are by percentages, and how well we did on something. Most people take in this information without even realizing it. We are constantly measuring everything that we do. But what if we stopped using other people's measurements and used our own?

What if instead of telling yourself, "I'm going to watch TV for thirty minutes today", you told yourself "I'm going to watch a little bit of TV until I get bored"? Things would actually get a lot easier. If you ever encounter something important that you weren't planning on when you said that you were going to watch TV for thirty minutes, then you would still follow your plan, even though theres something that should be an exception. Take your bedtime for example. If you go to bed at 10:00PM every night for the past twenty years and one night you are done with everything possible, and its only 8:00, then go to bed. Most people will just sit around and waste time instead of getting sleep. This is the problem! The person that designed the clock wasn't thinking that if you were done with all of your work then you the time should shift forward, and you weren't thinking about that when you said "I HAVE to go to bed at 10." But if you said "I should go to bed when I'm done with all of my work, and when I start feeling tired."

Numbers leave out so many things that are really valuable. What if you were a pro football player and you kicked a fifty-yard field goal? But what if a six-year old kicked the same goal? They're the same measurement but completely different situations! The kid would be an amazing football player at just the age six, but you couldn't tell by just using numbers! But if you asked each person how they felt they did, you'd get two very different responses and the responses would be accurate because you're not measuring using numbers, you're measuring the actual situation.

Of course, there are times when you need to use measurements, and that's totally OK. Such a situation would be that you need to schedule a meeting. Then it wouldn't be good to go to the meeting when you feel like you should go, because that would not be the same for everyone! Or if you were getting a new TV and you just got the one that 'looked' like it would fit. No. You should use measurements when you are either: Planning something with different people (you could still get ready when you think its right) but the actual meeting would occur at the same time for everyone, or if you're seeing if two things are compatible.

A whole different place where you don't need to measure is when you get up. A lot of people use alarm clocks to wake them up. But what if you didn't? You would never be dependent on the clock ever again! But most people would say "That's crazy! I could never get up without an alarm clock!" I said that same thing, until I realized, that if I scheduled something on a weekend early in the morning (such as meeting a friend at 6:00 in the morning online), until I started getting better at getting up when I should, then I could get up whenever I wanted, and I never was at the mercy of a faulty alarm clock. Also a little note, I still would use an alarm clock to read the time, but not use it as an alarm.

If you stopped using measurements, you'd no longer be at the mercy of society's judgment! If someone asked you how tall you are you could say "I'm tall enough that I'm comfortable with my height", you wouldn't fuel their need to compare themselves to others. Or if someone asked "How much do you get paid?!" You could calmly answer "I think that I get paid enough to support my family and get the things that I want occasionally". You'll find yourself a lot happier with your life because you aren't being constantly judged by other people. You would be judging yourself and making necessary corrections, instead of listening to useless garbage that people push on you.