A little of something is good, but a lot can be disastrous.
Once when I was a kid I’d make cinnamon toast. Butter, sugar, cinnamon, and put it in a toaster over.
Only I thought I’d try and experiment, and put TONS of cinnamon.
I figured a little was good, a lot would be better, right?
Nope.
Past a certain threshold (in this case the cinnamon to sugar ratio) you go from sweet with a hint of flavor to a bunch of gross buttery goo.
Salt on popcorn, crushed red peppers on pizza, vermouth in a martini, all are similar.
You want JUST the right amount. Not enough or too much. Neither work.
AND everybody has their own unique “levels” they like.
If you made your friends eat pizza with YOUR amount of crushed red peppers, for example, they may never want to eat pizza with you again!
With food, this is pretty easy. Try some, taste it, and you only need a couple tries to dial in your own perfect levels.
But some things are a LOT more complicated.
Take obstacles, for example. If you try something, and have ZERO resistance, it’s a good feeling, but it can also be pretty boring.
If you had a sales job, for example, and EVERYBODY bought from you, it would be great at first. But pretty soon it would be pretty boring. Like sitting at a counter and waiting for people to give you their order, like at a fast food place.
But if you have TOO MUCH resistance, you’ll give up. Not many salespeople will last long if they ALWAYS get rejected, and NEVER get a sale.
You want a balance, enough resistance to keep you own your toes, and paying enough attention to keep improving. But not so much you don’t get a good result every so often.
And like Tabasco sauce on pizza, everybody’s got their own “level.”
But here’s the thing. Unlike hot sauce on pizza, where your “ratios” will be pretty consistent, in life issues, they will always be changing.
Take a beginning sales person. When they start out, they’ll have little confidence. In order to keep going, they need a LOT of positive feedback. But the more experience they get, the more confident they’ll feel, they’ll be able to withstand MORE rejection over time.
Which of course, will push them to INCREASE their skills, thereby LOWERING their rejection.
Not only is those “levels” always changing, but they are always in flux.
If you can embrace this concept, and realize you’ll ALWAYS be fine-tuning your own unique “levels” you can look forward to a life that is CONSISTENTLY getting better.
This isn’t easy, as it’s not “set and forget.”
But it WILL make life much more REWARDING.
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