Overreaching — A Curse or a Blessing?

Recently, I’ve been battling with what I’d consider a concealed addiction. The need to overreach, to always try and grasp for more. I crave it, I lust for it and I had fully convinced myself that it should be considered a blessing — after all, it’s significatory of drive, curiosity and ambition. However, just as each character has their own fatal flaw, I’ve come to realise this compulsion as something else.

Rather than banishing it away, think of it in terms of someone who is walking on a tightrope. One overenthusiastic step and you’ve lost your balance. Ultimately, we have to balance this desire to overreach — which is harder than it may seem considering that it’s human nature.

Succumbing to Human Nature

We just happen to be very inquisitive as individuals, nobody is linear enough to say that only one scheme appeals to them. Yet, it does beg the question that perhaps we should try to focus on one thing at a time.

Perhaps we should try to live in the moment a little bit more, focus on short-term goals rather than long term, focus on what is in reach. Anyone who has taken any kind of business subject would’ve been shown the stark contrast between Leaders and Managers.

Leaders are depicted as individuals who can look beyond the horizon, focus on what can be accomplished, forward-thinkers etc. etc. etc.

Leaders embrace human nature — they overreach.

Managers are individuals who are more concerned with balance, maintaining control over daily tasks and are more firmly rooted in the present.

Managers combat human nature.

So now, we have The Dreamer and The Realist. What I’ve yet to see is a business book merge these two personas. However, this person does exist and he/she is The Acrobat. The Acrobat must nurture and excel at a talent before being able to master the other, all of this while visualising the end goal. Even though the Acrobat embraces both personas, they ultimately still succumb to human nature — the need to overreach. Further, this suggests that there’s a deeper underlying issue at hand.

The Root Cause — Multitasking Addiction

In Multitasking is Killing your Brain and Stop Trying to Multitask. You’re Terrible at It, both Authors suggest that we need to start focusing on working systematically i.e. one task at a time and in order. By continuously over-reaching, it is increasingly difficult to master any discipline and we are leaving ourselves susceptible to poor work-habits, and to stress, by an increase in production of cortisol.

Nonetheless, it is unrealistic to focus on one desire out of the many that we have. Rather, we should just selectively choose what is worth overreaching for.

Warren Buffet’s 5/25 Rule

Not more than a week ago, I was unfamiliar with Warren Buffet’s 5/25 rule, I now apply it whenever I get the big fancy idea of overloading myself. In brief, you are told to list 25 things that you want to do in the next few years. Next, you have to pick your top 5 and never look back at the remaining 20. The reason for this is to focus your mind on what you really want to do and to wave farewell to all other distractions.

In a sense, this is selective overreaching. We are still satisfying our underlying human need but we are limiting it to what is really worth our time.

After all, it’s just a balancing game.

Really hope you took something from the article, trying to disrupt the norm a little bit. As always let me know what you think! Original article on breakbeyond.net