Seth Godin, in Small is the new big (DoYouZoom, Inc., 2006) says that benchmarking isn’t such a great idea.
As business people, we’ve been taught to “benchmark;” that is, to set a goal and keep checking ourselves against that goal. Even in our personal lives, we “benchmark” when we set a goal weight and keep getting on the scale to check our progress. We can benchmark our aging, our “progress” toward old age and death. We hurt a tiny more each day; we walk with more difficulty; we gain a few more chin hairs, a few more pounds…. and on and on. Godin says we “benchmark ourselves into a funk.”
He said we need to stop doing all this checking and rating (no more Amazon reviews?!?) and begin to care about what we have now. I concur. The older I get the less I compare myself to others and to myself at an earlier age. I’ve learned you can’t change the past, but you can live in the present, and can create your world in the future.
How can we stop benchmarking and stop living?
1. Throw away the scale. Stop dieting
2. Take that list of goals off the bulletin board
3. Stop rating your love life 
4. Don’t worry about how many miles you ran/walked/swam last week
5. Stop counting calories
6. Ignore the ratings on Netflix; choose your movies by what interests you
7. Don’t look at the clock when you’re working
8. Don’t look at photos of yourself when you were younger and worry ’cause you don’t look like that any more. Thank God you don’t!
9. Stop competing with yourself and others (you don’t need to grow the biggest pumpkin to feel good about yourself)
10. Play golf/cards without keeping score.
For a couple of days, notice all the ways you rank/score/rate/evaluate yourself, your work, and others. Then consciously stop doing some of this stuff. I’m going to work on this for a week, and I’ll let you know how it goes. If you do it, keep me posted.
I’m planning on enjoying life more. What a concept!
Record-breaking pumpkin - 1936 Photo: PicApp (copyright Getty Images)
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