In the Goldilocks zone

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bear,
what did her blue eyes see…
A chair that was big, a chair that was small,
A chair that was tiny, and that was all.
She counted them one, two, three…

The first time I read & heard this goldilocks story, via a nursery rhyme was in my primary school (or was it even before that I am not sure). The rhyme has stuck with me ever since, becoming one of those “unforgettable” nursery rhymes. The rhyme was expected to give the young minds a sense of size and measurement – big, small and tiny, apart from other learnings. Recently when my daughter started exploring about space in her school & books, I heard about “goldilocks” a second time, used in a different context but still a yardstick for measurement: Earth has life because it’s in the goldilocks zone, in terms of proximity to sun: Not too close, not too far; just right. When I asked my daughter what she thinks about the goldilocks zone, she replied “Just perfect“!

Weather is a topic always up for discussion. Call up family and friends, we enquire about the weather at respective places. Is it too hot? too cold? Rainy? etc. People love to live in places with best weather, not in places with extreme weather. Not in places where mercury dips below 0 in winter, or where it soars above 45 Celsius in summer. I heard San Diego has the best weather in all of USA – not too cold in winters, not too hot in summer – just perfect in that goldilocks zone. In India, we have few cities in this goldilocks zone: Bangalore and Pune, historically the weather has never been extreme and always comfortable, be it summer or winter – Not too cold, not too hot – just right. (although people could contest that it’s getting along the lines of ‘unbearable’ during summer recently). Yet, compared to other cities, Bangalore is still in this goldilocks zone. So, it’s a little wonder that, even with the traffic chaos in the city, people continue to live here, continue to move here, creating more traffic. Goldilocks in terms of weather, but not so much in terms of commute time, eh!

Health is wealth. As in wealth, we want the best and most of the good things for our health. There is no middle ground, we aim for the highest quality. The goldilocks zone concept doesn’t apply on the overall health, we need the best. However, within the health fraternity, there are several parameters that are required to be in the right zone. Heartrate, for one. I have a resting heartrate of 47-48. Although I do go for runs, I wouldn’t categorize myself as an athlete, people get me worried that it should not be so low. But then they also note that if there are no obvious issues (like fatigue or confusion) due to low heartrate, there shouldn’t be a reason to worry. In any case, I feel more comfortable when my heartrate is in the range of 60-70, a goldilocks zone in my view. Then we have parameters like Sugar and Blood pressure. Low BP and Low sugar situations are considered more fatal than their higher ranges. We yearn to keep our sugar and BP at optimum level. Likewise, we want to keep our weight, WBC, RBC, basically all the vital parameters in a healthy range, in a goldilocks zone.

To get to the best possible scenario of health and wealth, we need a goldilocks zone of work ethic and life balance – Efficient and busy schedule yet having enough time for mental and physical wellbeing. Too much work at office could get us more wealth, albeit at the expense of mental and physical health. Too little work will impact income and future prospects, and if the remaining time is not utilized rightly, it will give us anxiety and lack of confidence, thus impacting health as well. “Too much is too bad” is always true; too much of anything is bad, too much of food, too much of exercise, too much of stress, too much of sugar, even too much of water is bad – everything has to be in the right balance – has to be in that goldilocks zone.

People are in different stages of their careers. Some are just starting out, some are seasoned campaigners, and some are at the ripe of their career. When it comes to job switch, people with less experience and people with lot of experience have more trouble. One is less experienced and less qualified; the other is probably over-qualified or without relevant experience and less “moldable”. People in the mid-career bracket seem to with the right set of talent and attitude, and not entrenched in a particular culture or mindset. More open and flexible to change and possibly contribute better, or so it seems. The years of experience for such mid-career bracket depends on the industry; for athletes and those into sports, it can be in the 4-8 years, whereas in the other industries it could be 8-12 years. Being in the goldilocks zone in terms of career graph is apt for moving, and companies are always in the lookout for such talents.

There are areas in life where we want to stand out from the crowd, not just be an average. But for some areas, like stress (mental & physical), amount of food we eat, etc, has to be in the right amount, just in that goldilocks zone. So, let’s be that curious goldilocks, explore the large, small and tiny aspects in the different spheres of life and figure out a perfect balance in life, whatever works for each of us!