Recently I was in Northern Maine for a family vacation. It was amazing. We were in Boston for 4 days and then headed north. Can we give God a big round of applause?  He really has created some magnificent scenery!

Each day we were in Maine I went for a walk. Well, it was supposed to be a walk, but as I am sure you are not surprised, each day it turned into a run. Why?  Because I have a Garmin watch that my family gave me for my birthday. It is amazing. It is meant to be an aviation watch, but the thing tracks EVERYTHING!  Heart rate, pulse ox, nearest airport, sleep, stairs climbed, stress level, steps, and about 463 other things that I will likely never fully understand.

Why did my walks turn into a run each day?  Because I got caught up measuring. Something that was simply meant to be an opportunity to move and stretch my legs became a game of how many stairs I could climb by running up hills, how many intervals I could manage, could I hit 12,000 steps before lunchtime?

Don’t get me wrong, exercise metrics and goals are great but this shined a light on a greater concern.

After talking with a friend a couple weeks ago, we shared difficulties as business owners in measuring everything. And measuring often. Multiple times a day. As business owners we have a lot to measure. And often those metrics grab us by the throat and affect our moods, the way we interact with people, and many other things.

But it isn’t unique to us. How about social media?  How many likes, friends, followers, and comments did we get?  How many days or hours until Monday morning?  How many years or months until our kids are out of the house or married or graduated or old enough to give us a little breathing room?

Measuring is good. It is important. But it can become all-encompassing and rob our joy. It can take an activity like sharing wisdom on social media and turn it into an am-I-good-enough comparison game.

Sometimes maybe it is nice to go for a walk or a run and not care about the metrics. Or to realize the social media comparison game has no good outcome. Or to get busy living life instead of worrying about it passing us by.

#WINtheNOW is about being present in the moment. Because that is what we have. And you can’t measure quality time. And you can’t measure friends. And you can’t measure peace and joy. And you can’t measure the benefit of a great gratitude walk. But you can lose them all if you are too busy measuring.