When Is It Enough?

Boundaries are needed. Otherwise we will binge.

In everything that we do, we need to know when to stop. Some are automatically, some require conscious decision. But as conscious decision require efforts, then I often forgo it.

Let’s start from the physical dimension first. We need to rest every day. No matter how busy we are and how interested we are, our body cannot go on without proper rest. So we need to say enough is enough and there is still sunrise tomorrow. Same thing with eating. Even if we are given a buffet of the things we like but seldom eat due to cost issue, we cannot go on eating. Our stomach cannot contain too much food and therefore we need to know when to stop. Interestingly, the taste and satisfaction is even reduced before we feel very full. This perhaps is what people call as a law of diminishing return. As we get more and more, the marginal increment of satisfaction for a given intake is smaller than when we start. The previous two items are referring to those that are not related at all to addiction. There are other things as well whether activities or food or drink or smoke that people may be addicted and therefore it is even much tougher to say stop.

Apparently, this also apply for us in our emotion and mind.

No matter how passionate we are and excited we are, we need to remind ourselves that there are other things that are more important in life. Time and resources are limited. So we need to know when we decide to stop trying and choose to focus on the one we have.

We cannot keep learning for example, there is a limit to the amount of things we can absorb in a day. Also as we become more absorbed to it, the less we observe the people whom we love and the environment which surrounds us. The point is the same, we need to know when to stop and allocate the focus to others with higher priority.