I love the phrase “Things are never quite as good as they seem, nor as bad as they seem, but somewhere in between reality lies.” I first heard it from Lou Holtz.

Today the Dow Jones is very nearly at its all-time high, just shy of 15,600. The U.S. national debt today is at an all-time high of $16.74 Trillion. Is this the best of times or the worst of times for the U.S. economy?

Parents in the U.S. spend vastly more now on youth sports camps and travel sports teams than at any point in time in history. Children in the U.S. are on average more obese than they have ever been. Are American children getting fitter or fatter?

Are you performing great or poorly as a business leader? Don’t get caught up in one great result or one great failure. Keep learning, stay focused, strive to make today better than yesterday, and steadily improve your abilities and your execution. Some days will feel like a championship parade and other days will seem like a bankruptcy. Keep learning, stay focused, strive to make today better than yesterday, and don’t get caught up in evaluating yourself by a set of statistics. Over the long run you will be very successful if you just keep things in perspective and keep performing better and better.