Stretching & Extending our Threshold

A check at dictionary.com shows that the word "threshold" has the following meaning...

1. called: doorsill a sill, esp one made of stone or hardwood, placed at a doorway

2. any doorway or entrance

3. the starting point of an experience, event, or venture: on the threshold of manhood

4. psychol absolute threshold Compare difference threshold the strength at which a stimulus is just perceived: the threshold of consciousness

5. a. a level or point at which something would happen, would cease to happen, or would take effect, become true, etc

b. (as modifier): threshold price; threshold effect

6. a. the minimum intensity or value of a signal, etc, that will produce a response or specified effect: a frequency threshold

b. (as modifier): a threshold current

7. (modifier) designating or relating to a pay agreement, clause, etc, that raises wages to compensate for increases in the cost of living

No day is a good day, no week is a good week...
Hahaha.. This sounds so common... especially when someone asked, how's your day? Well sometimes people would ask me: "How are you? In a new school. How's life?" The standard or a more diplomatic reply would be "Well, it all depends on which time of the year you ask this question."

True!

Let's do a comparison... if someone asked me to count your bad hair days and you are able to name it, not too bad (although it's bad enough to have a day named as "bad hair day"). It also comes with an assumption that those we are unable to count is considered reasonably ok... and sometimes very bright days! On the other hand, if you were asked if could name your good sunny days and you are able to easily identify and name it... what could one infer about the rest of the days? Hm... Interesting, isn't it?

Days do not get longer... it's still that 24 hours in a day. However, with more and more work added, with more and more "strange" things happening around us that we need to manage, it seems like each day becomes more compact. As a result, sometimes we don't even have the time to think of taking a break.

Here, let's revisit the times when we could take a short break to ponder... and compare with those days that we zoom in and out, from one place to another... so, which is the time/ instance that we are optimising our capacity? In those 'bad hair days' when we are occupied for almost every minute and every second???

So, aren't those 'bad hair days' that our threshold is being tested? How much can we "take in" for the day... in terms of work, ambiguities, reactions and even nonsense around us? There are times that I cried aloud, "I want to skip the day!", "I want to skip the week!". Those were the days when my days were loaded with so many items that I could not even count! While each of the items are countable, it's sometimes the psychological effect that create a bigger impact on us!

Of course, that also includes times when we can't figure out why do we have to do certain things? Why did we choose to do certain thing? After accepting our own reasoning on the purpose, the next thing that we would us is, "Is it really worthwhile to do this?", "Is the price too high to pay?", "To what extent we know there's Return of Investment?". Hm... I think this is not self-doubt, but it's clarifying on the 'reality' ground. Each time we go through this and we decide to go ahead because the value of doing it overcomes the challenge and stress, I guess, there's where we stretch our threshold further. It's the will and determination, I believe.

Apart from looking at "we", there are also other players in the field that "help" us to test and extend our threshold, in particular, patience. It appears in many forms... and of course, things that they do to frustrate us. What are our reactions? At the spur of the moment, sometimes we would really want to strangle them... on the other hand, if we could manage the nonsense calmly... I guess it means it had not hit our boiling point... Yes, it sounds like threshold also refers to patience... how much we have... and it's really up to the point that we lost our patience...

In a recent facebook post that I asked for the measure of patience, I got several responses...

• ‎1 min=1 headless chicken
• Measured scientifically by the number of people you did NOT strangle.
• By the number of pple tat hv left the organisation...or are planning to leave!
• Wah! Headless chicken? Interesting. By age? The older u are the more patience. 
• It depends on who it is... To a Buddha, patience is probably eternal. To an attention deficient hyperactivity disorder person, i think, he/she has zero tolerance... Apart from personality, it depends on where u stand on the continuum of patience too! I suppose a proactive person will not allow anything 2make him/her 2b a victim to a person or situation to test his/her patience but will instead strategize to manage & sometimes remove d source that is testing his/her patience. For me, if I hate mossies buzzin around me, I will either wear an insect repellant b4 going on a walk then I don't hv react to their buzzing & biting me or I choose not to go where mossies will test my patience or haha! if got loads of €£¥$, i'll go fumigate d area 1st! Lol

Up to this stage of writing, the term "threshold" focused largely on the individuals... but I think one of the responses pointed out the need to look at "organisational threshold" too! What a foreign entity is introduced to a system, it would sure cause some 'waves'... however, if such 'waves' remain unsettled for a long while and the other entities in the system don't seem to be able to accept its presence in the system, effort has to be put in to achieve stability. When it goes beyond the threshold limit, disintegration could be the next...