“What gets measured matters, but not everything that matters can be measured.”
Hey Rollers,
By the numbers, my birthday this year was a failure.
Last year, I completed 10 marathons in 10 days. My Misogi.
This year? A single 25km trail run. So a mini-Misogi I guess.
If you look at the stats alone, it’s an easy conclusion to draw. Less distance means less of a spectacle right? A clear step backwards. So much so that my ego briefly reared its head and I almost felt embarrassed sharing it. (I had to have a word with myself)
But numbers don’t always tell the full story.
Since my Big Birthday Run (BBR) in February last year, I’ve run a combined 427km – the same distance as the entire challenge itself. The longest of those runs was 13.8km, and that was on tar. I didn’t fall out of love with running, but life happened.
In that context, a 25km trail run was a push for me. Obviously not in the same way as last year, but in a way that was honest for the season I’m in.
What amazed me was that it gave me many of the same feelings as the BBR did.
The commitment of showing up for something unfamiliar and uncomfortable.
The presence required during it.
The sense of doing something intentional, hard enough, and meaningful, for me, and as a by-product, for those close to me.
The satisfaction afterwards, and more importantly, allowing myself to feel satisfied afterwards.
If I judge the experience purely by distance, it looks like regression. Judged by feel, it was progress. Another step towards the version of my self I’m building.
It’s reminded me of something so vitally important about Misogi.
A Misogi is always relative to where you’re at. It’s not about going bigger every time. Life doesn’t work that way. Time and focus naturally get allocated elsewhere – growing a business, building a home, starting a family, recovering from illness or injury – and rightly so.
A Misogi isn’t always about scale. Sometimes it’s about creating an experience that reminds you of who you know yourself to be, and what you’ve already proven you’re capable of.
Seen through that lens, I realise this wasn’t a downgrade but rather a recalibration. A chance to dust off the stacked evidence and reconnect with the part of me that commits, shows up, and follows through. And remember what that feels like – even when the numbers look less “post-worthy.”
This is where I think many of us get ourselves into trouble, especially those wired for growth.
We become overly loyal to metrics and under-attentive to feel.
Feel is information, just like hard metrics are.
And more than that, feel is fuel. It tells you whether something is sustainable, aligned, and worth continuing.
What’s measured matters, no doubt.
But what’s felt often determines whether you’ll want, or be able, to go again.
And that makes all the difference in the long run.
Until next week.
Keep rolling.
Justin 👊
Take Action in 3 Minutes:
Pick one thing in your life that the numbers are currently telling you isn’t good enough. Be specific.
A weekly mileage total.
A revenue figure.
A streak you broke.
A number you compare yourself against.
Now do this:
Step 1: Name the metric
Write down the number you’ve been using as the yardstick. Don’t soften it, just name it.
Step 2: Sit with the feel
Ask yourself:
- How did engaging with this actually feel (before, during, and after)?
- Did it build momentum, clarity, confidence, or capacity?
- Did it move me toward something I care about, even if it didn’t hit the number?
Step 3: Reframe the signal
Complete this sentence:
👉 Even though the numbers say “not enough,” this was progress because…
If you can finish that sentence honestly, you’re not regressing, you’re recalibrating.
Sometimes the real progress isn’t in the number you hit, but in the direction you’re moving.