Metrics Are Like Life... It's How You Look At The Data

Working for many years in business I had the opportunity to create many reports and metrics.  The key to these metrics was to communicate a message about the state of the project, the company etc.  The thing that I realized is that metrics are all about the focus.  What data are you focusing on and this will determine the outcome of this metric.  If you want it to have a positive reflection of the data you focus on the positive or if you want to show the negative this is what you focus on.

When looking at this I realize that life is the same way.  It is truly what we focus on in life and business.  Many people look at all of the negatives things coming at them and this increases.  This is not because there are necessarily more negative things but because this is where their focus lies.  If your focus is on to many meetings and the traffic was horrible today then that is what you will see. 

The same goes for the people that focus on the positive aspects of their day.  The positive is what they are focused on and this is what happens in their life.  The key to being satisfied with where you are is to focus on the positive.  I would say that anything can be turned into a positive experience just by focusing on the “data”.  It is a simple thing to do when you are in a situation that you perceive as negative take a few steps back and see where this might turn into a positive experience. 

This brings to mind a couple that I saw that had lost everything in hurricane Sandy.  You would think that they would be unhappy and devastated through the terrible tragedy that had hit them.  This was anything from the truth the event to them had brought them closer together and bonded them as a couple.  So it really is how you look at the “data” that can make a difference in how you see the world.  The funny part is once you start looking at the positive, things do get better and life just happens and through it all you are happy.

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