An Open Letter To Those Who Constantly Give The Bare Minimum

There is nothing wrong with having an "off" day; however, when you go through your work life, your personal life and any other aspects of your life giving the bare minimum, it affects those around you more than you know.

"Never Half-A** Two Things. Whole A** One Thing" - Ron Swanson

Look, I get it and I have been guilty of it too. Sometimes you just do things just to get them done, to check the boxes.

I think this pandemic and the stress of life and everything else has gotten to us. I know there are days where it took all I had just to get out of bed. However, if I can give at least one thing my all that day, I feel better and don't feel like I have wasted my time.

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There is one thing I've learned in life and that is that we are always told "give 100%" which, of course we all wish we could do 100% of the time, right?

That being said, there are some days where you just have to give 100% of what you can. If you are operating at 50% for the day in general and can only physically, mentally and emotionally give about 30% of that 50, than you gave what you COULD.

I've been there, I understand but I also know there comes a time where it seems like that kind of good nature is taken advantage of.

When It Gets To Be "Too Much"

This letter is absolutely not to diminish anyone's struggles by any means. This letter is more to the people who are satisfied and inconvenience everyone around them with their half-a**ery and really don't care, notice or be grateful they can at least get away with it.

Those people who put in the bare-minimum of effort and either reap the same benefits as you, if not more.

One example that could probably come to mind for a lot of people is their life at work.

Maybe you have coworkers who make more than you but there you are putting everything you've got into your job, really "understanding the assignment" and pushing yourself to put the best product out that you can. Then, there are those people who just skate by and get things done just enough to "check the box" and move on and they somehow get more recognition, credit, money, etc. than you.

Maybe your romantic partner always sits back and lets you just take care of everything when it comes to cooking, cleaning, etc. and even when they do help, it's only done halfway and really didn't end up being much help at all.

We know we don't want to live our lives doing a whole "tit for tat" thing with your coworkers, friends, etc. However, at some point you have to really look at a situation and say "hey, I'm putting way more effort into this than them...what gives?"

If you sit back and think about it and notice everyone around you is working harder, or worse, consistently picking up your slack, maybe it's time for some reflection. Think of how you feel in one-sided relationships whether that is at work, friendships or romantically...it's never fun...especially when it's just human nature to want to be recognized and appreciated.

How To Move Forward

Maybe reading this has made you realize that skirting through life on the bare minimum isn't the route you want to take. Or, maybe you want to punch me through the screen. Either way, in order to move forward, you need to at least acknowledge the problem.

Then, apologize, be that verbally or just by showing up and showing out.

Life is all about effort and when you give as much of that as you possibly can at the time, people will notice, appreciate and value you more for it.

I'm not saying you have to consistently bend over backwards for anyone and everyone or exhaust yourself in the process. However, here is where we try to draw the line between giving all you can and giving so little you might as well have not even done it at all.

Now, as the world gets ready to get back to in-person work, while working from home has been a breath of fresh air for some people, it may have been too much of a "breather" for others and that half-a*sery is going to come bite you in your whole a**.