Overwhelming Good

As much as I would like everything in Probity to always go smoothly, it does not always work out that way. When you have set up a system of such harsh and unforgiving consequences for failure, it is only natural that tensions would run high when one does not meet his/her expectations. It can be an emotional process when an expectation isn’t communicated clearly or fully, but the resultant consequence for failure is still enforced.

This morning, I missed my alarm at 6am and woke up at 7:22am, missing my opportunity to finish two of my tasks that I needed to complete by our 7:30am daily call. I commented on the tasks, explaining why I had failed to complete them. When I was on our morning call, I was told I was being docked two levels for failure to complete two tasks. “Wait, no, if you comment on a task giving the reason for its incomplete status, then that’s only half a level,” I retorted. The rule had been changed at some point in the past, but hadn’t been documented anywhere in writing (the rest of the rules are on DoFiveThings.com ). This quickly escalated into an argument over whether the rule was or should be enforced as a half point or a full point…

After six or seven minutes of going back and forth (as I was thinking, Is this really worth it? Should I just quit doing the FiveThings Daily Check-in?), Mike chipped in. “PD, I know if I were in your situation, I’d be frustrated by not being sure about what the rule was, but I’d just accept the d*mn point.” I froze for a moment on the phone as I realized my temperament. I could feel the choleric humours tensing my entire body; I paused, took a deep breath, and realized that Mike was absolutely right. I was letting a petty argument taint my perception of the broader vision of Probity. My knee-jerk reaction to the consequence was granting admission to a vile poison into my perfect garden. The consequences, yes, are extreme. They are difficult, constantly looming, and onerous. And they are completely unforgiving. But they are there to help us improve. We created them the way we did so that we would force ourselves not to compromise in our self-improvement.

And above all, we are doing this because we are passionate about Probity’s vision. We have a shared set of values and goals which we pursue together for our complementary skills and communal fervor. Getting worked up over something petty and losing sight of the greater picture simply is not worth it.

To close with a relevant image… in the words of Reddit, “This is quite possibly the simplest and most Zen flowchart I’ve ever seen.”