Go for the flow: adopt a middle way

How many outfits do you need?
How many dinner plates or pairs of shoes do you regularly use?
How many intriguing book titles do you realistically have time to read?

Many of us have an area where our abundance builds up. Books overflow available shelves. Reusable shopping bags could carry a platoon’s worth of shopping (if we remembered to bring them into the store). Mugs magically multiply in cabinets. Even, our weight creeps up. If calories consumed exceed calories spent, we get heavier. Gain just a pound a year and, in 10 years, we find ourselves carrying around an extra ten.

If we aren’t deliberate about balancing what comes in and what goes out, it becomes too much of a good thing. The Goldilocks tale can provide some guidance (if you ignore the breaking and entering part). A little girl enters a house and tries three bowls of porridge, three different chairs, and three sizes of beds. With each situation, Goldilocks dismisses the first two choices and decides that the third choice is “just right.” Choosing between three things is easier than facing a plethora. A new employee with ten options for a 401K plan may feel overwhelmed by decision-making leading to action paralysis. Confronting the cereal selections in a grocery store makes a shopper inclined to pick the same brand each time. Three choices may seem too few but it simplifies decision-making.

Certain things we don’t want leaking: gas tank, engine oil, water heater, bladder, memory, energy levels, secrets, condoms, or bank account. A clog can be bad if it’s a toilet, sink, gutter, artery, digestive system, mail, trash, subscriptions, or projects. Some human systems, such as the digestive or respiratory, are designed to move regularly. Diarrhea or constipation are uncomfortable. We know holding our breath without releasing becomes painful fast and possibly even deadly. We prefer temperatures where it’s not too hot and not too cold…

Do you open a refrigerator jammed with containers and declare: “There’s nothing to eat.” Is clothing overflowing from your closet, but you can’t find an outfit to wear? It’s time to seek the middle way with its sense of equilibrium. Go for the Gold(ilocks). Aim for balance: Not too much, not too little, but just right…