15 pieces of flair is FINE
In the cult classic movie Office Space, Jennifer Aniston plays a server at Chotchkie's, a fictional restaurant that's reminiscent of TGI Friday's. Her uniform requires her to wear "a bare minimum" of "15 pieces of flair." The "flair" are various buttons with slogans or catchphrases, pinned on suspenders. When her boss, played by the film's creator Mike Judge, attempts to persuade her to wear more than the "bare minimum" of 15 pieces of flair, she's not feeling it. She doesn't care that another server wears 37 pieces of flair or that the "flair" is (allegedly) about "expressing" oneself. Later, when her boss confronts her again about wearing "only" 15 pieces of flair, she is beyond exasperated and asks him why he doesn't just make the bare minimum 37 pieces of flair instead of 15. Then she flips him off and quits on the spot. (!)
I always loved this last scene and was reminded of it recently while chatting with a dear friend who is also a former colleague. We're both perfectionists and when we practiced law together, we used to lament that we should stop giving EVERYTHING 110%. The thing is, we didn't realize that sometimes simply doing what NEEDS to be done, like wearing the "bare minimum" of 15 pieces of flair, is completely FINE. In fact, it's often all that others ask for and expect! Instead, we were actually our own internal Mike Judge character, giving ourselves unnecessary grief if we did "only" what we were required to do. What's wrong with that?!
Here's the deal: there are 43 days left in 2021. I know, I know, but please don't kill the messenger here. There are going to be insane demands on our time both at work and home as this year closes out. There are going to be tasks to complete but we can't and shouldn't give 110% to all of them. So I'm here to say that's ok. In fact, it's required for both your sanity and survival right now. If all you "need" to do to complete a task is three things, there's no need to add a fourth, fifth, and sixth thing. Get done what needs to get done. And don't worry if someone else is wearing 37 pieces of flair that day. You can too, for some tasks on some days. But not every day. Or for everything. 15 pieces if just fine.
It's all how about how you wear your flair anyway. Good luck!
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