The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)

Gap-Focus: Is It Hurting or Helping You?
In  the  opening  pages  of  this  chapter,  we  talked  about  using  the
Life  S.A.V.E.R.S.   to  close  your  “Potential  Gap.”    Human  beings  are
conditioned  to  have  what  I  call Gap-focus.  We  tend  to  focus  on  the
gaps between where we are in life and where we want to be, between
what  we’ve  accomplished  and  what  we  could  have  or  want  to
accomplish, and the gap between who we are and our idealistic vision
of the person we believe we should be.
The  problem  with  this  is  that  constant  Gap-focus  can  be
detrimental to our confidence and self-image, causing us to feel like
we don’t have enough, haven’t accomplished enough, and that we’re
simply not good enough, or at least, not as good as we should be.
High  achievers  are  typically  the  worst  at  this,  constantly
overlooking
or
minimizing
their
accomplishments,
beating
themselves up over every mistake and imperfection, and never feeling
like anything they do is quite good enough.
The  irony  is  that  gap-focus  is  a  big  part  of  the  reason  that  high
achievers are high achievers. Their insatiable desire to close the gap
is what fuels their pursuit of excellence and constantly drives them to

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achieve. Gap-focus can be healthy and productive if it comes from a
positive, proactive, “I’m committed to and excited about fulfilling my
potential” perspective, without any feelings of lack. Unfortunately, it
rarely does. The average person, even the average high achiever, tends
to focus negatively on their gaps.
The highest  achievers—those  who  are  balanced  and  focused  on
achieving Level  10  success  in  nearly  every  area  of  their  lives—are
exceedingly  grateful  for  what  they  have,  regularly  acknowledge
themselves  for  what  they’ve  accomplished,  and  are  always  at  peace
with where they are in their lives. It’s the dueling idea that I am doing
the best that I can in this moment, and at the same time, I can and will
do better. This balanced self-assessment prevents that feeling of lack
—of  not  being,  having,  doing  enough—while  still  allowing  them  to
constantly strive to close their potential gap in each area.
Typically, when a day, week, month, or year ends, and we’re in
Gap-focus  mode,  it’s  almost  impossible  to  maintain  an  accurate
assessment of ourselves and our progress. For example, if you had 10
things  on  your  to-do  list  for  the  day—even  if  you  completed  six  of
them—your  Gap-focus  causes  you  to  feel  you  didn’t  get  everything
done that you wanted to do.
The majority of people do dozens, even hundreds, of things right
during  the  day,  and  a  few  things  wrong.  Guess  which  things  people
remember and replay in their minds over and over again? Doesn’t it
make more sense to focus on the 100 things you did right? It sure is
more enjoyable.
What does this have to do with writing in a journal? Writing in a
journal each day, with a structured, strategic process (more on that in
a minute) allows you to direct your focus to what you did accomplish,
what  you’re  grateful  for,  and  what  you’re  committed  to  doing  better
tomorrow.  Thus,  you  more  deeply  enjoy  your  journey  each  day,  feel
good  about  any  forward  progress  you  made,  and  use  a  heightened

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level of clarity to accelerate your results.