Numbers Game

My husband Gerry also has a blog.  He has unfortunately, showed me the "stats" function on the blog-o-world.   Blogger keeps track of the number of 'hits' one gets, on which particular post, from what country, etc.   To be honest,  I was much happier not knowing about blogger stats!   Now that I DO know,  that's just one more thing to fret about,  try to keep track of, react to.

In my experience,  the numbers game is mostly about comparing yourself to somebody else.  We do it with income, weight, or church attendance.   We do it with the price of our car or home, or the amount of our assets, or our  grade point average or profit margin. The temptation of the numbers game is to compare yourself numerically to someone/something else, the outcome of which is inevitably going to bring disappointment.

 I immediately compared myself to Gerry's stats, and noticed that his numbers were so much larger than mine.  I was crushed, of course.   Eventually, however, after looking carefully at his stats and at my stats,  I can see now that one must not rush to look at just the bottom line, overall number.   In this instance,  Gerry's overall number covers six months, at least, and maybe more.  For whatever reason,  my stats cover only July and August.  If they covered the entire period of my blogging,  I'm sure my numbers would be significantly higher than they are..

I hate any act of comparing myself to someone else.   But once you have opened the box of knowing, there is no way to go back to unknowing.  Years ago,  I happened to accidentally see a printout of the salaries of people in my department.  I learned quickly that having that kind of information serves only to make one miserable!

I hate the numbers game!    I wish I could say that I am never going to play it again!!