You may have heard this cliché line before, but is it
possible to have too much of a good thing? Let’s go through a quick mental
exercise right now for the next 30 seconds…
Close your eyes and think about your hobbies and
things/activities you like to do for fun. Then put yourself in the mindset that
you could do those things and just those things for several weeks or even
months. You would wake up in the morning, do that hobby, then grab some lunch,
and hang out for a bit, then do that hobby again. Then have an afternoon snack
and hang out for a bit, and then do that activity one more time before calling
it a day. You would then go to sleep that night and wake up the next day to do
your favorite activity again, 3 or even 4 times that day. Let’s say you could
do that for several months.
Now open your eyes. How do you feel? Does that lifestyle you
just pictured sound just awesome? Probably. My next question is, are you living that life
right now? Possibly, but likely not. The fact that you are not living that
“ideal” lifestyle right now is likely the reason that the lifestyle you just
pictured a few seconds ago sounds so awesome.
Most of us humans function with the “grass is always greener
on the other side” mentality. We may be more or less content with our current
lifestyle but we always want more. When we view something that we think we will
like, we tend to overlook the negatives and mostly just focus on the positives
of it.
We subconsciously ignore the downsides of the other side of the lawn in order to trick or convince
ourselves that what we are picturing is really awesome and really meant for us.
In a way we are each wearing “rose colored glasses” that oftentimes make us
rather naïve in comparison to what the actual situation is like.
Going back to that supposedly ideal lifestyle; since you are
probably at your desk and bored at work, you decide to read this blog post.
Obviously the lifestyle you just pictured sounds awesome because at this point
you just need a curveball or something to spice up your life and throw you out
of your routine. You are probably thinking that since you do those activities/hobbies
maybe 1-2 times a week and you have so much fun doing them, that doing them
full time: 4x/day, 7 days/week for 6 months will be so great. In reality, we
tend to appreciate the quality of something more if we have limited quantity of
it. It’s kind of like in the business world: the higher the quality of a
product, the lower the quantity. If you do your hobby 1-2 times a week, then
obviously you don’t have lots of quantity (time), thus you want to maximize the
happiness you get out of those hobbies, in essence increasing the quality
(enjoyment).
In the mental exercise you just did a few minutes ago, the
quantity aspect of this “ideal lifestyle” becomes more or less unlimited. Thus
to get that whole ying-yang balance in order, the higher your quantity (time)
the lower your quality (enjoyment). To be able to have high quality with high
quantity is very difficult. You may be able to have that at certain times, but
constantly having maximum excitement when you have unlimited supply of time for
that activity is very difficult.
Let’s take a look at money. Money is a good thing. It can
buy you food to put on the table, a roof over your head, comfortable and
stylish clothes, a car or some form of transportation to get from Point A to
Point B, and money to do your hobbies/activities. All these qualities can bring
you and your loved ones happiness. But too much money actually has a reverse
effect. Lots of people get caught in the mindset that they think the more money
they make, the happier they will be. Numerous studies have been conducted in
regards to the optimal salary for happiness, such as this one:
The magic number ends up being $75,000/yr. On average, any salary above $75,000/yr
will not increase your happiness. Again these are just statistics, but these
numbers show that there can be too much of a good thing for money as well.
Furthermore, how good does a brownie fresh out of the oven
taste? Good, huh? The first one may then lead to 2 or 3 more. They still taste
good. If you are feeling really hungry you may grab a few more. You start to
feel a bit full at that point. You wait a few more minutes, and have 2-3 more.
By then you are already 2/3 of the way done with the pan. Let’s suppose you
don’t like leftovers or you are out of tin foil to wrap the remaining brownies,
so you decide to just finish the entire pan. You have now eaten a whole pan of
brownies in about 30 minutes.
How do you feel now? Not so good? You then end up
feeling really sleepy due to major food coma and have a stomach ache. With all
the sugar you ate, you will have to brush your teeth 5 times longer now. Plus
you didn’t even end up sharing the brownies with your friends who are suppose
to come over in a bit to hang out. Overall, not a great experience. Had you
stuck with just 2-3 brownies vs. the whole pan, you could have avoided all
those problems and made your friends pretty happy to try out your latest baking
oeuvre d’art.
To be fair, I will play devil’s advocate. You may be able to
argue that there are people out there that are very passionate about certain
things, they can do them on a very frequent basis, and are always stoked about
what they do. I guess this is a pretty rare thing, and these people end up
being very good in their hobby/activity, that usually turns into their full
time job. That it be Michael Jordan (basketball), Kelly Slater (surfing), Steve
Jobs (entrepreneurship), or Tom Hanks (acting).
These people have really found
something they can spend many hours on per day, continuously be excited about
it, and likely make some good money on it. It’s great to be able to find
something that you can spend tons of time on and continuously be happy with,
but the consequence of this lifestyle, potentially result in having to sacrifice other aspects/pillars
of your life since you are going “all out” with that one activity.
At the end of the day, everybody wants to live a lifestyle
that brings them happiness and contentment. The key is to find that unique recipe
for how you allocate your time on the different aspects of your life. If you do it right, you’ll be able to pull out
a maximum amount of satisfaction out of each activity you do while not going
overboard either.
spot on
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