When my daughter started learning about WWII, I was delighted that her understanding of contemporary human history is now on a big global scale. During a regular session of homework review she asked me to do, I recall telling her that her work is of great quality and detail, but it was too comprehensive. The subject was simply too big. She tried to cover too much ground and the effort deluded the reader with facts drowning out the storyline.

Blue sky thinking is great when there isn’t any constrain by the limits of practicality. It’s a space where dreamers dream of all things positive without being tethered to realism.

Using the subject’s analogy, the Allied bombed Germany to great success and ultimately won the war, but it came at a great loss. The countries were victorious, but almost all families lost loved ones. The Japanese successfully destroyed the US’ Pacific Fleet, but this pulled the otherwise indifferent America into war who ultimately retaliated prompting the Japanese’s surrender. In both these examples, reaching for a goal came with heavy costs and consequences.

 

There is a point of diminishing return where further effort will yield no additional benefit. Sometimes, it could even be a detriment.

 

“Let’s celebrate small and incremental successes,” was my advice to her. I reflected on my years of sleep training as I once naively thought I could do it in a week. At work, I had a project that required the local government to make a change to a law. Such undertakings, while admirable, is often unrealistic.

I said to my daughter with a heavy heart, “Dream big, but deliver on point.” She can gold plate her assignments all she wants, but while she’s handing in one assignment, it’s the teacher who must read and grade thirty others! Her teacher won’t appreciate the effort much less reward it. Having said that, I don’t ever want her to diminish her thinking and only put in bare minimum effort.

It’s a balancing act. Put in the effort to achieve the optimal outcome. But there is a point of diminishing return where further effort will yield no additional benefit. Sometimes, it could even be a detriment. I think this was an interesting topic for my daughter to ponder. She had always thought that getting 100% means a complete and full understanding of the topic. “I don’t think your teachers even has 100% of understanding of the topics they teach!”

Thinking big is good for brainstorming. But with finite time and resources, she must be specific on what she puts into practicable application. When it comes to academics like assignments and tests, I told her to, “Respond to the heavily weighed questions first. In fact, that’s a great exam strategy that’s worked well for me: prioritized the questions with the most points rather than answering them in the order as set out.” Lofty goals can still be achieved. Just be selective on what those goals are.