The True Nature of a Mind Swayed by Numbers
I wake up in the morning and open my smartphone while rubbing my still-sleepy eyes. I check my social media notifications, and my eyes are drawn to the number of followers and 'likes'.
When I get to work, performance figures and evaluation sheets are waiting for me.
When I get home, I enter today's expenses into a household account app and step on the scale for my diet.
Before I know it, I am living my life surrounded by numbers all day long.
For some reason, numbers, which should be convenient, sometimes make my heart feel heavy.
I feel down if the response on social media is less than I expected, and I feel a moment of relief if my work numbers go up.
But the next day, I find myself wanting 'more'.
Numbers dominate my mind, swinging it back and forth like a pendulum.
The true nature of this fatigue is 'comparison'.
Numbers may look absolute, but what we are really concerned about is the 'relative difference with others'.
100 'likes' on social media might be a proud number compared to who I was yesterday. But if a colleague or friend gets 1,000, it loses its value in an instant.
Salary, weight, follower count—numbers may look objective, but in reality, they are always referencing 'other people's numbers'.
What's even more troublesome is that there is no 'end' to numbers.
If you have 100 followers, the next goal is 500, and if you have 500, it's 1,000. No matter how much they increase, satisfaction doesn't last, and there is always someone 'higher' out there. This is a phenomenon in psychology called 'hedonic adaptation,' where people quickly get used to new standards.
Numbers are not devices that provide satisfaction, but rather machines that create the next craving.
However, numbers themselves are not bad.
Numbers certainly have the power to encourage us. The joy of confirming the results of a diet on the scale, the sense of accomplishment when effort is reflected in sales figures. These become important sources of energy.
The problem is 'making numbers the only standard for happiness'.
I want you to try and remember. How many moments have there been that cannot be measured in numbers, yet still fill your heart?
Being told 'thank you' by a friend during a busy day.
Eating a warm meal on a tired night.
The beauty of the sunset I happened to look up at on my way home from work. None of these can be turned into numbers. But they certainly make me think, 'I'm glad I'm alive.'
The way to calm a mind swayed by numbers is not to deny numbers themselves.
Rather, it is to 'measure with both numbers and the heart.' While accepting the progress that numbers show us, do not forget the warmth of your heart.
Do not overlook the warmth that remains deep in your chest in favor of the values displayed on a page.
That leads to a way of living that is not dominated by numbers.
True happiness cannot be measured by numbers.
Numbers are like a compass that shows us the direction of our efforts.
However, it is the heart that decides how to walk the path that the compass points to. Instead of being swayed by numbers, use them to your advantage.
When we can hold that perspective, we will finally be able to reclaim our lives as our own.
The previous #SeriesThatCannotBeMeasuredByNumbers was...
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