Everything doesn’t have to be amazing all the time

Hallmark movies fall under the category of what I call perfectly useful.

Because during the holidays, nobody wants to be challenged. People want things that are easy, comfortable and cozy. They want to see people succeed and feel happiness and love.

Cue the schmaltzy romcom about the big city workaholic who returns to her charming little hometown to save the family business, and accidentally falls in love with a local lumberjack.

That movie will keep scores of people entertained and make them feel the holiday fuzzies in the run up to the big day. It’s perfectly useful.

And that’s not an insignificant role in society. Anytime something has a job to do, and it goes and does exactly that, nothing more, nothing less, I’m a happy guy. It fulfilled its intended purpose. And for a brief moment, all is right in the universe.

Movies are only one example. Think of an even simpler product. I could imagine a stainless steel thermos giving a speech at a picnic about this.

Folks, I keep your coffee hot. I keep your water cold. I’m not out here trying to revolutionize the beverage container industry. Day after day, I show up, I go to work, and I get the job done. I’m a dependable guy, solving everyday problems without making a big deal out of it. Perfectly useful. Who wants soup?

Don’t get me wrong, I love innovation and novelty. I also recognize that everyone and everything has an essential role to fulfill, and doing simply that is enough.

My mentor used to tell me, usefulness is worship. Edward stressed that contributing to the world, supporting the wellbeing of others, even in small ways, is a spiritual practice. Because it demonstrates a commitment to something bigger than yourself.

I’m not saying a stainless steel thermos has the sentience to feel a deep a source of meaning and purpose. But we do. The object merely resonates with our innate human desire for usefulness.

Wow, I just had the most random flashback.

High school. Summer before senior year. I was playing my weekly concert at the local coffee shop. During my set break, a friend of mine asked if he could read the lyrics to one of my songs. I showed him my notebook, and he commented on a one tune.

This is a powerful exercise I highly recommend. Next time you’re out for a walk, challenge yourself to take any given object that crosses your path, and see why it’s perfectly useful.

Imagine the contribution it already made, and could make, to the world. See what you come up with.

Another variation of this exercise is to go to your favorite ecommerce shop, and type in the words perfectly useful in the customer review bar. You’ll find descriptions of products that aren’t over the top glowing, nor dramatically critical.

Here’s one review from a storage container.

Looks just like the photo and extremely easy to assemble. Cleared a lot of space while still looking nice. The material is sturdy and well made. Definitely a good buy!

Now that’s what I call perfectly useful. I don’t think it the worst thing in the world to aspire to. Contrary to popular conditioning, everything doesn’t have to be amazing all the time.

I think the real problem here is our inability to see value in things. We simply can’t make the empathetic leap.

Debono used to call this the yellow hat thinking. Looking for benefits and potential in any situation or object, regardless of initial perceptions. And not just on the surface, but really digging into how this thing might be useful to others in ways you haven’t considered.

You think, huh, I bet there’s something someone appreciates here that I don’t. Some broader contribution I’m not aware of.

Who knows? If we do that long enough with the objects around us, perhaps the same empathy could be extended to each other.

What’s your definition of perfectly useful?