Do you count?

Probably you do..... but are you sure you count the right things?

Albert Einstein is quoted to have written that
"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; 
everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted"


Reading this quotation made my mind go in spirals. In most of the jobs and projects I've been involved in, counting has always been a crucial activity. 


From highlighting figures worth counting for funders to see the worthiness of a project, to counting people to measure the success of an event to counting the blessings of being part of an experience, group or project. What we count, and how we count it often determines what we do so we'd rather be sure we count the right things in the right way!


So many things to count, but what and how to count? Albert Einstein seems to have provided the short answer, I took some time to identify a matrix of four real life experiences that provide an example of:

• something that can be counted but does not necessarily count
• something that cannot be counted and does not necessarily count
• something that can be counted and counts
• and finally something that cannot be counted but indeed counts.

• something that can be counted but does not necessarily count

Hours at work. So many people have to adhere to strict hours at work, signing in and out etc. We can count the hours at work but does that mean that amount of hours of work is being done? Similarly we can count how many people go to church....

One also thinks of the stipend system in Maltese higher education here. We know we are investing more money, and probably the more euros we count the more students make to higher education. But are we supporting education or the social life around it? 

• something that cannot be counted and does not necessarily count

If it cannot be counted and it does not necessarily count....well it has to be quite trivial, but it reminds me of the ignorance (or should i call it megalomania) portrayed by some comments following the articles on online newspapers. The depth of irrelevance cannot be counted and thank God for that!

• something that can be counted and counts

Thankfully many are the the examples here! We can measure our learning and that counts to be able to acknowledge and celebrate the successes of students. we can count our blessings and thank the Lord for them!

• and finally something that cannot be counted but indeed counts.

This is what made me write this piece. So many times things that cannot be counted are sidelined. 

We feel unsuccessful because our efforts are not reflected in money we can count when organising a fundraising activity.

We forget that even though we or others cannot count our hours of sincere interest in others, sacrifices for the common good, those sacrifices still hold a lot of value!

One word explains such situations. Wrong

A Music teacher who also worked as an orchestra conductor, Benjamin Zander once explained that he asseses his success in conducting a concert by the sparkle on the audiences' eyes as he helps them discover the pleasure of music. 

A teacher once told me nothing is more powerful than the look of a student  who has just understood something s/he was struggling with. She called it her understanding of success 

Very immediate and powerful  descriptions of success!

Cannot be counted but i bet we all see ....it counts!