Less is More (Masterchef Junior US)

Do you remember Abby? Yep… one of the contestants in Masterchef US season 2 that I wrote before. You can read it here. She’s in semifinal last week. And in this semifinal, the challenge was to make salmon dish with ingredients that already provided. The four contestants got different package. The numbers of ingredients for them are 5, 25, 50 and 100.

Abby was given 100 ingredients, while Logan (the winner of Masterchef Junior season 2) was given 5 only and Sam was given 25 by Adiah, as the winner of the challenge. She picked the 50 for herself. In the previous week, Abby cooked the salmon with only 2 ingredients and she nailed it. But then…

Last week, on the semifinal, she looked confuse. More ingredients she had, making her difficult to decide what to cook, what ingredients to choose. She ran back and forth to the refrigerator, where the ingredients stored. And at the end, she was eliminated along with Adiah.

In my previous post, I wrote that she has the spirit to keep on fighting and be one of the best that week with limited ingredients – which not easy, not even for a professional cook. But then… last week, I learnt that sometime less is more.

I mean… let’s look it this way. In a very limited situation, in this case – the number of ingredients, she came up with an almost perfect – creative way to cook. But last week, she lost because she was confused. Not focused.

And we are also like that sometime. For example, when we don’t have lot of money to do anything, we will try to make the best of what we have in the pocket. Maybe we buy some vegetables and cook for our dinner. And it might be the best meal we ever had. But then… we have some money, we tend to spend them on things that not necessary to buy.

Another example in our work, in a very limited time due to dateline given to us from boss or clients, we tend to maximize that limited time and give the best we have. But when we are not, we tend to spend our time for any unnecessary things – such as gossiping with fellow worker, read online manga, streaming video on youtube, etc.

Why we do something like that?

In my opinion, it’s about focused. When we are in limited situation, we tend to be focused. More focused than ever. We are put all of our efforts to this one particular thing. And, as mentioned by Rhonda Byrne in The Secret, the universe is supporting us when we are focused on something we really want. Or Pak Yohanes Surya called it MESTAKUNG – Semesta Alam Mendukung.

Before, I was thinking that I really want to know the general idea about a company. I don’t want to focus only on one thing. I want to know everything. I want to be a generalist. While my friend said that it’s not good. I will end up useful but not useful enough for a company to looked for.

Have you heard that to be a professional, you have to do the same thing over and over and over again approximately 10.000 hours? That’s mean you have to be focus on one thing in particular. Like a doctor. If you want to be a good doctor, you have to know first. What kind of doctor you want to be. Is it Dentist, Surgeon, or just a doctor?

This means that you have to know what you want first. When you want it. How you want it. These are the second habit of 7 Habits – begin with the end of mind. After that… pursuit it. Well. Not everyone had it on their mind as soon as they started it, but eventually – after sometime, they realized that they want this, this and this. And they started to do it in more focused way.

Well, now I might need to do some rethinking to be more focus. To be more “Less” in my life. Focus on things that really matter to me and congruent with my purpose of life. Well, this is actually a note for my own. At the end of this year, I need to do some evaluation – for what I have now, what have I achieved before and what to do next.

So… what do you think? Do you think Less is More or in contrary?