Do you ever get the feeling that you’re doing too much and too little at the same time? Have you ever felt overworked and inactive in the same moment? If so, you are suffering from Buridan’s Ass Syndrome. This post provides guidance for increasing your productivity while decreasing your stress.
Buridan’s Ass refers to a parable that dates back to the 14th century: If a donkey (an ass) is equally hungry and thirsty, and situated equidistantly between a pail of water and a bale of hay, which will he choose? According to the philosophy of Jean Buridan (who’s moral determinism this parable satirizes), the answer is neither: he will die of both hunger and thirst.
The reasoning behind this conclusion is that all action is governed by rational thought. We decide between two options based upon which we want more or need more . . . which is more attractive, more important, more valuable, more significant . . . In the absence of a clear rationale for prioritizing one option above another, we shut down and do nothing.
I don’t know about you, but this describes me on so many levels. I find so often that I have so many things to do that prioritizing them is nearly impossible! They all seem just as important as the others.
And when I do finally decide to do something, I have to fight off this nagging feeling that there are other things that are more important than the thing that I’m doing.
So many of us spend so much of our time shifting our gaze between the bale and the pail . . . we are standing right in front of what we need to survive, but yet we are dying of both hunger and thirst!
Just do it! Right? Why can’t we just do it!
If your house needs to be cleaned, just clean it! If your bills need to be paid, just pay them! If you need to go to the gym and workout, just go! If you’re child needs a bath, just bathe her!
JUST DO IT!
Buridan’s Ass Syndrome is a state of mental and emotional paralysis. When you have so much to do . . . that you can’t do anything, you are suffering from Buridan’s Ass Syndrome.
You may be functional . . . doing just enough to keep going, handling the things that are absolutely necessary when they become absolutely necessary. But you are living beneath the realm of your responsibility, and it is crushing you. You need to get on top of it and learn to live above it! Or you are living behind it and you need to get a head of it!
There is no progress in a functional existence. A functional existence is about getting by another day. A victorious existence is about taking ground every day.
Entrepreneurs don’t live to get by, they live to make progress.
Buridan’s Ass Syndrome is either killing your creativity or degrading your relationships, and you just can’t sit by and let it go down another day! You’ve got a great contribution to make to the world, and this mental block is stopping you from making it!
You’ve got to learn how to rule your realm. You are not a jack ass; you are a ruler! Get up, pick something, and do it!
