Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

The other day I received an Outlook invitation that had over 60 people on the distribution list. Granted I was part of the problem in that I was added to the list a few weeks ago. But still - this is a weekly meeting that has obviously suffered from invitee proliferation. If the objective of the meeting is to have any decisions made with everyone listening on how that decision is made, then mission accomplished.  It's not rocket science to figure out how a distribution list can get to be that way. Maybe the original intent of the meeting was to get a core group of people (let's say <10) together to get updates and make decisions on a strategic decision. Then those 10 people decide one day that they can't make it and assign the meeting attendance to their deputy so that he or she can attend and then that person is never removed from the distribution list. Then there's always an agenda item that involves resources working on the projects that support that agenda item ...

When I was in graduate school, my Industrial Engineering professor wanted us to write a paper on living our life 'lean.' By lean, I'm referring to lean principles that are prominent in many best-in-class manufacturing organizations today. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate how much waste there was in our everyday lives and what impact there would be as we leaned out our daily activities. Even in graduate school, where I was living off at most $13K a year, I still had too much 'stuff'. It was an eye opening experience. Fast forward to today. I now make more than $13K a year, am married, have a son, a house, and a pension / 401k plan. I'm on my 3rd job now and am in the annals of management for a multi-billion dollar client. Our 2 car garage only holds one car - because the other side is filled with who knows what. Our dining room is a play area for my 20 month old. When I go to work, I have 2 laptops, 2 phones, an iPad and more paper than I know what ...