Goldilocks had it right.
I’m not talking about breaking and entering someone’s house and then eating their food. That would be a clear violation of the law, and I do not condone that under any circumstances. Instead, Goldilocks had it right when she chose to sip each of the bear’s porridge to see which one she liked best. When she determined that the first bowl of porridge was too hot and the second one too cold (or vice versa), she knew what temperature she was looking for in order to get the best meal available to her. Once she found that bowl of food that was just at the right temperature, she announced it to the world and dinner was on.
This is an example of what I call the “sweet spot” - the range across something that gives the best possible results with the minimum amount of effort.
There are other, more legal examples of the “sweet spot”. In sports such as baseball, tennis, and golf, the “sweet spot” is an area in which the ball responds the best upon contact with the equipment surface. Equipment manufacturers are always developing their equipment to get the largest “sweet spot” available so that people have more fun and success when playing the game. This tends to lead to more equipment sales when someone talks about their golf clubs or baseball bat.
To narrow this concept further, let’s use hitting a baseball as an example. The “sweet spot” of the bat is roughly in the middle of the fattest part of the bat. It’s farther away from the handle than most people believe it to be. In my experience, if I hit a baseball in the physical middle of the bat, I tend to hit the ball right back at the pitcher at a slow rate of speed. A wood bat might shatter if I hit the ball too close to the handle, depending on the pitch and condition of the bat. On the other hand, the ball tends to go foul or create a “pop-up” if I hit a ball at the opposite end of the bat. But if I hit a ball close to the center of the fattest part of the bat, I can transfer a lot more power to the ball and guide it to where I want it to go.
Other Examples of the “Sweet Spot”
The “sweet spot” also extends to many facets of life design as well.
- Stuff: Too few possessions may create problems with your personal effectiveness. In most parts of the world, too many possessions is a far bigger problem: you may need more storage and more housing space, which drives your upkeep costs higher.
- Sleep: Too little sleep leads to deprivation and can be worse than driving under the influence of alcohol. Too much sleep and you may be groggy or lazy, thereby creating a damper on your effectiveness.
- Food: Too little and you starve; too much and you become overweight.
- Exercise: Too little causes health problems (e.g. diabetes, obesity), while too much may cause health problems of a different sort (i.e. a lack of exercise due to injury or over-training).
- Credit: Too little and you may run into issues with not being able to extend a business, buy a house, or take advantage of opportunities. All of us likely know what happens when someone has too much financial credit (and used it all).
- Money: Too little money and you run into problems by possibly creating debt and not being able to live. Too much money doesn’t seem like a problem until you create an unsustainable lifestyle, overextend your finances, or you aren’t ready to handle that kind of wealth. Statistics show that most significant lottery winners end up broke within a few years, even in spite of them stating that they will use the money wisely. Too much money can also attract non-financial problems. For instance, your family may want you to lend or give them money, which may cause fights and family upheaval.
Finding the Sweet Spot
So how do you go about finding the “sweet spot”? There are three tips to finding your “sweet spot” in anything you want.
- Your “sweet spot” is your own. Nobody else has your specific sweet spot relative to what you experience.
- Your sweet spot is best found by intuition. You must listen to yourself in order to find out where the best is for you at the moment (as your “sweet spots” can also drift from time to time).
- Most importantly, do not give up control of finding your “sweet spot” to someone or something else. This is how “fad diets” start when it comes to weight control (for example). Advertisements, clothing models and the media all assume that a specific body type is the most desirable and does not take into consideration who you are. You give up your own power to somebody else by following the mass media instead of your own self.
For instance, let’s say that you want to get to your ideal weight “sweet spot”. It takes a combination of diet and exercise to get there, plus monitoring your weight and food intake. If you are too heavy relative to your ideal weight, the scale and your emotions will show it (you feel too sluggish) and you have to eat less, exercise more, or both. Similarly, if you are too thin relative to your ideal weight, you might feel too deprived or weak and the scale will read its results. You correct this by either eating more, exercising less, or a little bit of both.
Depending on what “sweet spot” you are trying to hit. you just have to experiment, observe its effects, and make the adjustments. The feedback you get, either objectively or subjectively (e.g. emotions and how you feel) will give you the information to find what the “sweet spot” is.
So what “sweet spot” are you trying to find and hit this week?
image credit: zeddyorg