Flaming Bags of Poo: Are You In Crisis Mode?

The mind works in mysterious ways, especially my mind. One minute I was wondering why anyone would fall for the 'flaming bag of poo' prank and then suddenly, my life made sense.

But let me start from the beginning. When there's a flaming bag of poo on your porch, the thing that initially gets your attention is the fire. That's what makes this prank such an enduring and popular one. Almost by pure instinct, you act to put the fire out as quickly as possible. You're in 'crisis mode' and you respond. Who could blame you? Once the fire is out, well, hopefully you have another pair of shoes and the name and address of the person who did this to you.

That being said, a lot of us live our lives in 'crisis mode.' Having the occasional crisis can make you think that you should devote a LOT of time to 'getting organized' or 'being productive.' Basically, it's perfectionist overcompensation, which brings me to one of my favorite laws: the Law of Diminishing Returns. It's the point at which the benefits fail to increase proportionately with added effort. Here we have a LAW that says, "At a certain point you would be better off taking a nap."

That's why, when it comes to certain things, I'm all for mediocrity. Most people are really down on mediocrity, but I don't know why. In my dictionary, mediocre means "moderate to inferior in quality; ordinary. See synonyms at "average." What's so bad about that?

There is saying about mediocrity that I feel I must repeat here: It takes a lot less time, and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late.

Leave off the "until it's too late" part, and you have a really inspirational quote, at least from where I stand. Did you know that it takes just as much time to get a B+ as it does to increase your grade from B+ to an A? I just made that up, by the way. It took a lot less time than it would have to find a real statistic.

When the effort exceeds the benefit in areas of difficulty (or things simply don't get done), you may even decide to pay someone else to do some of those things for you. And if you're bent on 'being productive', think of it this way: when you spend most of your time doing stuff that you're GOOD at, it's a much more productive use of your time.

Which is why, after spending about 30 minutes trying to find a good statistic online, I finally just made one up.

It's great when the Law of Diminishing Returns is on your side. This doesn't mean we shouldn't try to do well, but as what cost? If you never stop to question what is worth doing (or worth doing well, as the case may be), you might never consciously decide what's important enough to cut into nap time.

The difference between 'good enough' and 'perfect' when working on something you don't have an aptitude for involves huge amounts of time, usually at the expense of other things that you enjoy and do well. And who says that doing things you enjoy and do well can't be productive?

So the moral of the story, whether it's managing your weak areas or standing with your foot in a previously flaming bag of poo: It's bad enough that you stepped in it, but don't stay there any longer than necessary.