Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 185 – The Yardstick

[Mahler]

Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 185 – The Yardstick

The Yardstick

I was searching for an idea for this morning’s motivator and after several false starts and more than a few minutes of head scratching, I turned in my chair, looked over at the corner of my office and leaning there was a yardstick. My apologies to you folks from metric land, but in my world, the yardstick was always associated with significant measures such as distance covered for speed or territory gained.

So much in our world is measured by a set of standards, and those standards almost always have to do with numbers. A young graduate may be overlooked for a job because he is not old enough or does not have the years of experience that some arbitrary number says he should have. An older person may be denied a position or a promotion because he has, in someone’s estimate, exceeded that mystifying number that says he is now past his prime or beyond his ability to contribute usefully to the bottom line. The yardstick works against them.

All too often, we as a culture measure success and failure by utilizing the oversimplified standards of increase and decrease. The yardstick of success can be the size of one’s paycheck, the cost of the car a person drives, the price of the home one lives in. The lower down on that yardstick some find themselves, the more we, as a society, seem to assign to them the words, lazy, ignorant, and yes, a failure.

It is important to keep things in perspective, at this point. The guy with all the money or prestige probably worked very hard to get where he is and is deserving of the rewards of his labor. His position at the end of the yardstick may be well earned. What I am really trying to say is that the yardstick is not a continuum. The higher the number does not always equate to the greater success, nor does the lower number. Yet, if you take a close look, our lives are filled with all kinds of yardsticks, whether we admit to their existence or not.

The yardstick of age somehow seems to say that the lower numbers are indicative of vigor and strength, while the higher numbers are the harbingers of weakness and decline.

The yardstick of ability assigns greater importance to physical prowess over the mental as we see more prominence placed on those with athletic talents as opposed to those with mental agility.

The yardstick of appearance tells us that those blessed with good looks are somehow more worthy of our esteem and adulation, while we can brush aside or conveniently ignore the plain or the ordinary.

Fortunately, dear friends, there are some aspects of life for which there can be no yardsticks, no measures except for that which is within each of us alone. How does one measure love or respect? At what point do we assign a number to hopes and aspirations that says one is greater or more worthy than another? Where, on any yardstick, can you find a number for courage, conscience or conviction?

Take out the yardstick if you must and gauge what is measurable, but know that the truly important and most beautiful aspects of the way we live our lives are without measure.

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Have a Great Week!

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[GG300]

Thank's John.

[Chris Correia]

Not only is this the first MMMMMMM I've read on a Monday in quite a while, but even before 10:00!! Well worth it. Thanks for good words for a good start, John.

[K-Court]

Truth.

Thanks, John.

[RacerBill]

Beautifully said. Thanks, John.

[kingkop182]

Thanks John, and good evening from 'Metric Land'.

[K-Court]

I went through the metric conversion (or as much as we did here next door to the great non-participant) while at school in the 70s. I adapted to celsius and kilometres ... but I always thought (and still do) that "metre stick" just sounds weird.

[kingkop182]

Taking it a liitle off topic, to be honest over here my generation uses a complete amalgamation. I describe things in both Inches and Centimetres (sometimes together ). Playing golf i'd say the 'i've got 50 yards to the pin' but if somebody asked me how far it was to the shop for i'd say about '200 metres on the left' for example.

[ninja]

John uses the yardstick for........



good one.

[Chris Correia]

Originally Posted by K-Court

. . . the great non-participant . . .

Funny.

[jj]

Good stuff John. Thanks for the time you put into these.