Let’s do a little exercise, and please, take this seriously. I need you to get a sheet of paper, probably an A4 sheet and draw a long vertical line on the left side of the sheet. Please do this, it is very important to what we are about to discuss.

I want to believe you have the paper and have drawn the vertical line. Now, strike two horizontal lines across the vertical line to split the line into three equal parts. On the lower section write “Under-challenged.” On the middle section write “Appropriately challenged.” And on the upper section write “Dangerously over-challenged.”

Each of these three sections represent where we are in life, whether as individuals or as a nation, whether as a family or in our careers. This concept applies to all areas of life. But for the purpose of focus I will zoom in to our official lives, our lives at the office.

Under-challenged.

If you are on the Under-challenged section it means you get to work in the morning not knowing what you are to do. You completed all your action plans for yesterday, yesterday, There is nothing left on your to-do list. In fact, cumulatively, you actually work less than 5hrs out of the 8hrs you are at the office. So, Facebook is always ON on your system. It is actually your home page now, it used to be Google, but you now think Facebook is better. You play Spider Solitaire when you have no message on Facebook, meaning all your friends are busy except you.

You call your husband, wife, boyfriend, or girlfriend, with the office phone ten times per day before you leave the office. You only really work when you are not playing. You are the first at the canteen for lunch and the last to leave the canteen. If you belong to this class, your life is wasting away. In 5yrs time all your mates will be light years ahead of you.

Appropriately Challenged.

If you are in the Appropriately challenged section, your to-do list for today was prepared yesterday or first thing when you got to the office this morning. When you got to the office, you went through your mail to see what your actions your bosses want you to close out today. Once your to-do list is ready, you prioritize.

You want to do the more urgent things first. That is what prioritizing means to you. Then you set to work. You go for meetings between 10:00am and 12noon. You access Facebook mostly during break time. During working hours you only pop in once in a while and log out. Your focus is in closing out all your actions. And by close of business that day, you actually close-out all your actions. You are fulfilled. Then you go home. Tomorrow is another day. If you are in this class, you are just okay, but not at your best.

Dangerously Over-challenged

If you are in the Dangerously Over-challenged section, your to-do list never ends. Each time you see your to-do list your heart skips. From the moment you hit the desk till the moment you leave you are on over-drive. You hate meetings with a passion. To you it is just a waste of the time you don’t even have in the first place.

The only reason you go to the canteen for lunch is because you need food to stay alive. If your company would have let you have lunch at your desk, you would have preferred that. You quickly finish lunch and rush back to you desk to continue working. There is no need prioritizing, you just start at the top of the list and work downwards. It’s not like you’re going to finish the entire task anyway. You only visit Facebook once in a couple of days.

When you are at home, your mind is still at the office. You’ve not gone half-way in today’s tasks and more will be added tomorrow. Your heart is always beating at a fast pace. If you are in this section you are living in crazyland. Medically, you will soon die. You are over stretching your heart and your brain. And there is only so much that they can handle.

Now, the one million dollar question is, “In which of these areas should you be?” This is the answer. You see that line you drew to separate the Appropriately Challenged section from the Dangerously Over-challenged section? Change that line to a small rectangle with the upper half just encroaching a little bit into the Dangerously Over-challenged area and the lower half of the rectangle just encroaching into the Appropriately Challenged area. That is where you should be. That is where you are performing optimally.

If you gym, you will agree with me that to develop your muscles, you give it a task that is just a little above its capacity. Not too much, just a little. In other words, if you can conveniently lift a 10kg mass, to develop your muscles you go for a 12kg or 15kg mass. If you under challenge the muscles, they become flaccid. If you just give it a load that is equal to its capacity, you just maintain shape. But to develop it, you give it a little more load than its capacity. But you don’t over stretch it continuously, otherwise it will break.

Even doctors tell us that a little stress is okay for us. But if you live your whole life stressed then there is a problem. So, you don’t want to be in the Dangerously Over-challenged section all your life, just as you should not just be in the Appropriately Challenged and the Under Challenged section perpetually. But what if you are already there? What do you do? Well, something tells me you already know what to do.

Mute Efe,
+234-803-874-9796