Learn to live by doing “Just Enough”
We live in a society where more is better and “just enough” is perceived as settling for mediocrity. We live in a time of plentiful where we are constantly offered to supersize this and jumbo size that. We are taught to raise our standards so high that meeting them becomes a never ending pursuit to raise the bar, for no other reason than to raise it one bar higher. At school and work, we are encouraged to work longer and harder because we are told that only by doing this, will we achieve success.
I have a different meaning for “just enough”. This is my equation:
“Just Enough” = “Balance” + Weighing your “Opportunity Cost”
To achieve balance, sometimes we slightly overdo AND other times slightly underdo in order to find equilibrium (the most desired yet practical result within our potential). Many of us caution on error and we tend to overdo, except rather than overdoing just enough, we overdo too much. A lot of us waste valuable time overdoing the unnecessary. In the other extreme, we set our bar so low that we are not even challenged, and therefore not doing within our potential. So to achieve balance, we will sometimes do slightly more and other times slightly less, and then the balancing process repeats itself. We are constantly out of balance and it’s our job to continually find balance.
Opportunity Cost is a business term for calculating the cost of selecting one opportunity over another opportunity. When we spend time attending a class, our opportunity cost is not doing something else such as making money, having fun, exercising, getting rest, or perhaps taking a different class. When we spend eight hours at work each day, our opportunity cost is what we could be doing with that time. So we might compare our opportunity cost to getting paid while spending eight hours at work vs. not getting paid doing something else. Rather than thinking in terms of “black and white”, let’s consider the possibility of spending eight hours at a dead end job vs. spending half of that time doing something you enjoy that has the potential to pay you much more later. The point of calculating opportunity costs is to help you compare the value of one thing over something else so that you don’t end up spending the same amount of time (or money) doing both, and not achieving your desired results that is within your potential.
Take the below table for example. If you were a student with the following time constraint, which scenario would you rather choose (1, 2 or 3)?
| Scenario |
Time Studying (Opportunity Cost) |
Grade Result |
| 1 |
50% on Subject A |
F |
| 1 |
50% on Subject B |
F |
| 2 |
80% on Subject A |
A |
| 2 |
20% on Subject B |
F |
| 3 |
65% on Subject A |
C+ |
| 3 |
35% on Subject B |
C- |
Some might choose scenario 2, but then if we are required to pass subject B in order to graduate, we will waste time having to retake subject B again. A lot of people confuse the reason for being in school. We think it’s about getting the highest Grade Point Average (GPA), so we drop the class that would produce a lesser desired result and retake it later; hence wasting time (read my blog about the value of time – If you could live forever, what would you value the most). Some institutions will lead us to believe this. I think school’s purpose should be about learning and discovering yourself (what you like/dislike, what you are better at/not as good at, how you like to learn). The diploma tells employers that you graduated, have a capacity to learn, and have the perseverance to finish something; that is all that really matters.
When we seek balance in how much we do and we weigh our opportunity cost (the gain that we receive when distributing our time and/or money), we learn to live by doing “just enough”. Doing just enough isn’t being lazy; it is being calculating and efficient. On the other hand, doing less than our potential is being lazy. Don’t confuse doing “just enough” with the latter.
Next time you go out to dine, and we are asked to supersize this or jumbo size that, think about what it means to have just enough — we might just decide to go for (half) of the dessert, and skip everything else.
If this post has inspired you, please leave a comment. What could you be doing “just enough”?
