I recently listened to a great speaker named Jason Kotecki and he made a great point that the most important questions can’t be answered with numbers. Look at the questions we normally ask:
How much money do you make? How many Facebook friends do you have? How many square feet make up your home? What is it worth? What titles do you have or awards have you won? How many degrees have you earned? How many letters are after your name? How many hours do you work? How big is your office? How expensive is your car? What is your kids’ GPA? How many extracurricular activities are they involved in? How much money does that cost you? What about the tuition? How many boards do you serve on?
What do they have in common? All can be answered with a number. But the most important questions cannot be easily quantified or answered with a casual “yes” or “no”.
If we choose to focus our thoughts and lives on a different list of questions, we find fulfillment.
How fulfilled are you? How interesting is your life? How adventurous is your life? How much of a difference are you making? How excited are you to start each day? How loved do you feel? How happy are you? How content?
If we choose to ask those questions of others rather than those of the first list, we build meaningful relationships.
In the long run, the numbers don’t matter.