The gap and the gain: why progress feels invisible

You’ve lost three kilos, trained five times this week, and somehow it still feels like you’re getting nowhere. That feeling usually isn’t about effort. It’s about where you’re measuring from.

There’s a simple shift, drawn from the book The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr Benjamin Hardy, that can change how your progress feels, without changing a thing about what you’re actually doing. The shift is simple: measure your progress against where you started, not against the ideal you’re chasing. When you measure against the goal, the horizon keeps moving and nothing ever feels like enough, no matter what you actually achieve. When you measure against your starting point, the same three kilos and five workouts become real, visible evidence that something is working. The facts don’t change either way, only the comparison point does, and that one shift in where you measure from is often the difference between sticking with a plan and quietly giving up on it.

The gap: always measuring against the ideal

When you live in the gap, you measure yourself against an ideal future that doesn’t exist yet, the perfect body, or the goal you keep chasing. The trouble is that the horizon keeps moving. No matter what you achieve, it never feels like enough.

For example: you want to lose 10 kilos, you’ve lost 3, and all you can see is the 7 still to go.

The gain: measuring against where you started

The gain flips it around. Instead of comparing yourself to where you want to be, you measure against where you were.

You notice what has improved, you give yourself credit, and that builds gratitude, confidence, and the motivation to keep going.

For example: same 3 kilos, but now you think, “I’ve lost 3 kilos and I feel stronger than I did a month ago.”

Same results, different story

The facts don’t change between the gap and the gain. Your interpretation does.

• Gap: “I only managed five workouts, I should have done six.”
• Gain: “Last month I was doing two, now I’m doing five.”

One version drains you. The other fuels you. Over weeks and months, that difference in mindset is often what decides whether you stick with it.

How to practise the gain

You can train this like any other habit. Once a day, or at the end of each week, pause and ask:

• What progress have I made compared to 30, 60 or 90 days ago?
• What feels easier now than it used to?

Count the small wins too, more energy, better sleep, steadier habits, stronger lifts, clearer focus, and if energy itself still feels short even when the fitness side is going well, the spoon theory is worth understanding too. Written down, these reflections turn invisible progress into something you can actually see.

Reference: Sullivan D, Hardy B. The Gap and The Gain. Hay House Inc; 2021.